Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord
by NHunter
Summary: "Unfortunately, the first magical child young Harry Potter met in Diagon Alley was a Malfoy. Draconica Malfoy to be exact..." Harry/Draconica Harry/fem-Draco. This IS HET! Intelligent!dark-medic!strong!Harry, likeable!Draconica, some bashing for others.
1. Into the magical world

**Title**: Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord  
**Author**: NHunter aka N.H. aka 夜狩猟家 aka 灰色天使  
**Genre**: General, romance, adventure  
**Rating**: M = NC-17  
**Characters**: Harry/**fem**-Draco ~ Draconica  
**Warnings**: AU, OOC, some OC later on, GB, not-stupid Harry, not-easy-to-manipulate Harry, female Draco; will have some lemons in the future, as well as blood and, maybe, gore. Also, features dark-medic Harry in the future. Some bashing (Ron, Ginny, Molly(?), Dumbledore) will be present in this story too.**  
Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "_**Harry Potter**_" or its characters.

*** Author's rant**:  
Before the actual story starts. I'd like to make several things clear: first and foremost, despite what characters this story is filed under, this **IS NOT** a slash story, so if you came here to read some yaoi, you can just close the tab and go somewhere else - there will be only straight pairings in this story! Speaking of pairings, while mostly it will be just Harry/Draconica, there are good chances of Neville/Hermione as a side pairing. Along with other "random" couples I may create.  
Second, Draconica has completely different personality from Draco, but that is quite understandable: Lucius doesn't see her as anything more than a way to secure closer alliance with some pureblood house and get some money. Thus, the girl isn't spoiled rotten by him - Lucius doesn't spend much time with her at all. Instead, Draconica is raised by her mother (Narcissa Malfoy nee Black) in traditions of the house Black. She is almost a true Slytherin, though she is still a scholar. Also, unlike her father, Draconica understands that sometimes purebloods can be not those with the best knowledge/abilities and thus she is much more tolerating towards "lesser blood", to the point of being acquaints with Hermione.  
Third, I don't think that Harry could have survived ten years with Dursley by being naive boy: he ought to be more Slytherin-ish than JKR portraits him to be. No, he isn't evil or really dark, but is neither stupid, nor naive, nor easy to manipulate. Also, he understands that knowledge is power and studies hard, even if he isn't obsessed with absorbing all knowledge in the magical world, like Hermione. Finally, since his isn't naive or stupid, he isn't swayed to the anti-Slytherin camp by Hagrid. Really, can 1/4 of the magical world be evil based just on what house you were sorted at school?

"human speech"  
'_human thoughts_'  
"_**spells / parseltongue**_"

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Special thanks to _**NARUHAREM FOREVA**_ for beta-reading this story.

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**chapter 1: Into the magical world**

"'ere we are, 'arry, go get... -eek your robes..." Hagrid said as they approached Madam Malkin's shop. "I'll be at the Cauldron... -eek Those carts make me sick..." Indeed, the giant of man was quite green in his face. Harry quickly nodded.

"Okay." And so he entered the shop. Inside, Madam Malkin's robes shop seemed quite empty with some robes hanging on the pegs along the side walls and an empty counter – madam Malkin was nowhere to be seen, as were the assistants if there were any... Actually, the only human Harry could seen in the sop was a girl of about his age, who was sitting on the stool next to the counter and was waiting for something – her robes to be fitted. The girl herself had grayish-blue eyes and pale-blond hair that was made into a braid and had an aristocratic aura around her, which was only supported by the expensive and well-tailored clothes she wore and emotionless mask she had on her face... Deciding that he should wait for now, the green-eyed wizard sat on the other stool. For about a minute two preteens sat in silence.

"Hogwarts too?" The girl asked in a flat tone and without turning to look at him.

"Yes." Harry replied with a nod, even if he wasn't sure if the girl saw that.

"My father is getting my potion supplies and my mother is looking through the books." The girl informed him, before asking: "And where are your parents?"

"I'm an orphan." Harry replied after a pause. "But my parents both were magical." He didn't know why he added the last part, but it seemed the right thing to do for some reason. This time the girl looked at him, though her face remained more or less emotionless...

"My condolences." A pause. "What house do you think you will be sorted into? I'll be in the Slytherin like my whole family was." She said then, deciding to change the topic.

"Isn't that something decided at the sorting?" Harry asked, trying to cover his lack of knowledge about Hogwarts or the magical world in general. The girl nodded.

"Indeed, it is, but shouldn't there be some house you want to be in the most?" Harry thought for a couple of seconds, before replying.

"Well, they all seem to be good enough." There was a ghost of distaste on the girl's face when he said that – she seemed to be some Slytherin fanatic... Oh well, while Hagrid was saying that the house Slytherin was for manipulative, ambitious and evil, Harry wasn't stupid enough to think that everyone who went into that house was just like that. So, while less favorable, Slytherin was still an option in his mind... Again there was quite a long silence. It was broken when a lady in early fifties entered the room from the door behind the counter with several sets of robes in her hands.

"Here you go, miss. Sorry for taking this long." The woman – Harry decided that she was madam Malkin herself – said, giving the finished robes to the girl, who accepted them with a nod. Then she looked into the window and, seeing someone there, quickly got up from the stool and headed to the exit from the shop.

"Thank you for the conversation, hope we can speak more at Hogwarts... I'm Draconica Malfoy, by the way." Harry was about to introduce himself, but someone – Draconica's father? - called the girl, and she disappeared behind the doors.

* * *

After getting his robes for the school, Harry managed to talk Hagrid into doing parts of his shopping separately to save the time. This also allowed the young wizard to sneak into the Gringotts and exchange some of his galleons into pounds for shopping in the muggle world he planned to do later today... And right now Harry was getting the last – and most important – thing from his list: the wand. And he was getting quite frustrated as none of the fourteen wands he had tried so far came even close to choosing him...

"Well... Maybe you should try this one: holly and phoenix feather, eleven inches?" Olivanders said, giving Harry another wand to try. This wand actually produced a couple of weak sparks, but nothing more... "Not good enough, but still... better that the rest you've tried, mr. Potter." The old wand maker said. "If it happens so that none of my wands chooses you, this one will be you temporary wand, while I make you a custom one. Olivanders family prides themselves on being able to find a wand for any wizard, and I will have you with a wand that is yours!" He vowed.

"Okay..." Harry said, not sure what to reply.

"But for now, try this one: cedar and unicorn mane hair, twelve and three quarters inches." Olivanders said, but just as soon as the green-eyed wizard touched the wand, he pulled it back from his hands. "No, definitely not." How was the man able to tell this was beyond Harry's comprehension. "Well... How about this one? Ar'ar tree [**AN**: _Juniperus Phoenicae_] and a heartstring from Irish horned dragon, ten and one quarter inches." Harry took the wand cautiously, as if expecting it to set something on fire, like it happened with the fifth wand he had tried, but instead... this wand felt just right.

"Wow..." Was all that the green-eyed wizard could say, watching a small fountain of greenish-gold sparks erupt from the tip of his wand.

"Looks like we have found you a match, mr. Potter. Ar'ar tree and a dragon heartstring, ten and a quarter inches, quite rigid. Quite a powerful wand, good for healing and charms..." Here Olivanders lowered his voice so that only Harry could hear him. "And darker magics..." And then he continued in his normal voice. "But it should do well in any area that requires wand." Harry nodded.

"Is there anything you would recommend buying along with the wand?" He asked.

"Yes. You should get a polishing kit to keep you wand in good condition." The old wand maker replied. "I'd also recommend getting a holster for your wand."

"How much all that will be in total?" The young wizard asked then, while Olivanders was picking a polishing kit from one of his cabinets.

"Wrist holster?" The wand maker asked. When Harry nodded, he continued. "I will be nine galleons total with the leather holster and ten with dragon hide one."

"Leather one, please." Harry said, placing nine gold coins on the counter. Taking the holster from Olivanders, Harry attached it to his right hand and placed his new wand into it. Then he picked up the kit and did a step towards Hagrid who waiting by the door with a beautiful snowy white owl in cage in his hand and the rest of Harry's things by his feet. "Oh, mr. Olivanders, if it's not much trouble, can you shrink my things and make them lighter – I don't want to impose on Hagrid taking me back to my home, but I'm not sure that I can carry all of these on my own..."

"But Harry..." The half-giant tried to change young wizard's mind, but Harry didn't want to hear that.

"Hagrid, I really appreciate your desire to help me, but I'm sure you have more important thing to do than taking me back to my relatives." After a small pause, the green-eyed boy added: "Don't worry, I will be fine on my own." Hagrid nodded reluctantly.

"Yes, of course, mr. Potter, That would be no trouble for me to do at all." The old wand maker said and, walking up to Harry's school things, shrank them with a single movement of his own wand. Another wand movement later things glowed pale blue for a brief movement – they were featherlight too now.

"Thank you very much, mr. Olivanders." Harry set, picking his shrunk purchases and placing them in his pockets. Than he took the cage with the old from Hagrid, and the two of them left the wand makers store...

**~/ *** \~**

Thanks to overly enthusiastic shopping assistants in the muggle mall Harry went to to buy himself new (muggle) everyday clothes, he barely was able to return to Privet Drive before ten in the evening. Dursley, of course were ...displeased with him being away for this long and not cooking for them. Also, they were displeased with him having new – and good – clothes and glasses. Yes, Harry got himself new glasses, nothing fancy, of course, but at least they were what he needed and not random old glasses he wore before. But they were displeased the most with the owl Hagrid bought him, though Vernon decided to interrogate his nephew about clothes first.

"Boy, where did you get all of these things?" Vernon roared with his face quite purple with anger. "God help you if you stole even a penny from good people to get those!" Being used to his uncle's tirades, Harry didn't even flinch.

"Don't be so worked up, uncle Vernon. You see, ...the school has a fund for those who don't have ...their money. And ...their money are different: you can buy a whole new wardrobe of normal clothes for the money you'll need to get a single suit of good quality in ...their shops. I just saved enough to be presentable at ...the school with these new clothes. Do you not want me to show them that normal things are better?" Harry said, carefully avoiding words 'magic' and 'Hogwarts'. This seemed to work as his uncle's anger had deflated somewhat. "And I even managed to save enough money to get myself to London on September first, so you won't have to drive me there." This finally returned Vernon to a relatively good mood.

"Looks like we managed to install something good in you, boy." He said. "Because you were so go in showing that the normal people are better than no good freaks like you are, I'm even willing to tolerate this thing..." He pointed at the owl in Harry's hands. "If you keep it to your room and have it being quiet."

"Yes, uncle. I will do just that." Harry said carefully not to give his uncle any reason to be angry with him.

"Go to your room. I don't want to see you any more tonight. But just because you didn't have to do your chores today, don't think that I will allow you laze around."

"Of course, uncle Vernon." Harry relied. When his uncle nodded, he took all of his things and headed to his room.

**~/ *** \~**

Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore was in his headmaster's office at Hogwarts, sitting in his grand armchair, deep in his thoughts. The reason for that, though, was quite simple: all of his plans that he had build around the assumption that Harry would get that wand from Olivanders were crushed - the wand with the second Fawkes' feather didn't choose young Harry.

'_Had I made a mistake all those years ago?_' The old man asked himself. '_But Tom went after Potters, so Harry must be the chosen one, right? Or was the absence of any marks the true mark, and Neville is the one?.. I've heard that Augusta plans to send her grandson here with his father's wand... I need to suggest her that no matter how much she wants to see her Frank in Neville, the boy will need his own wand._' Dumbledore thought. '_And if it happens so that that one chooses Neville, I'll have to declare him as the chosen one, as only the one with the brother wand will be able to stand up to Tom._' The old headmaster paused to pop a lemondrop candy into his mouth. '_But what if Neville too is chosen by a different wand?.. I'll have to wait and watch for other signs that will allow me to determine which boy is the chosen one..._'

**~/ *** \~**

Olivanders, as Harry learned the morning after his trip to the Diagon alley, was a clever man and had placed all those charms on his things just temporary. So by the next morning, the green-eyed wizard had his things back to their normal size (and mass), and, thus, could do some pre-school studying... So far potions and charms seemed to be the most interesting subjects... Transfiguration and Defence Against Dark Art seemed to be good too, though with a bit too much theory in the beginning... Herbology could have been very interesting too, but the chores of tending to the garden he had had over the year saw to him being cold to the subject... Astronomy was good, but seemed to be outdated, compared to its 'muggle' counterpart – Harry had heard about Hubble telescope and what it could do, as well as radio- and gamma- observatories muggles had both on the ground and in space. Magical people still used just refractors, 5 inches at most... History seemed to be the most useless subject as the could be no way that all that happened to the magical world were goblin rebellions: after all there was Voldemort at very least. And Hogwarts founders, and Merlin, and...

* * *

As the time progressed towards the September first, young wizard decided that he didn't want to travel to the Kings Cross from his current residence in the morning... It seemed to be a much better idea to get to London a day earlier and stay a night at the Leaky Cauldron: he could use magical way of transportation to get to the platform 9¾ from there... With this thought in mind, Harry approached his relatives on August twenty ninth.

"Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia..." He said to get their attention.

"What do you want, boy?" His uncle snapped at him. "Don't you have your chores to do?"

"I'm finished for the moment." The green-eyed wizard replied honestly. "I want to ask, if I could leave your hospitable house a day earlier. I'm sure that a lot of people there will be up early on September first, and they may see me with ...my things. And I will leave in evening, so I will have to skip only one chore..." Harry explained, while carefully watching his uncle's face.

"Hm... I'm sure that one chore missed won't be too bad if we get to have you out of our hair a day earlier." The walrus of a man said. "Be sure that there are traces of you at our house by eight in evening on that day."

"Thank you, uncle Vernon." The green-eyed boy replied, before hurrying back to his room...

**~/ *** \~**

At half past nine in the evening on August thirty first Harry learned that his idea had a one miscalculation: he didn't take in account that there could be no rooms at the Leaky Cauldron available... Thankfully for him, he managed to get one, but that was the last one the pub had... Also, the bartender, Tom, was kind enough to explain how to get to the Kings Cross magically from his pub. The floo network – as much as Harry was apprehensive to travelling between fireplaces – looked to be a fast and relatively reliable way of travelling around.

Ten in the morning the next day saw Harry standing in front of the fireplace at the Leaky Cauldron with all of his things by his side, including an empty cage - he had released his owl, Hedwig, to fly to Hogwarts on her own.

"So, I have to throw some powder into the fire, call the destination when the fire turns green, and step into it?" The green-eyed wizard asked. Tom the bartender gave him a toothless smile and nodded.

"Yeah, that's right, Harry." Nodding to the man, thankful for his help, Harry picked some of the floo powder from the box that stood on the fireplace and threw it into the fire.

"Platform 9 and ¾" He said when the fire turned green. Hoping that he had done everything correctly, Harry picked his things and stepped into the fire... ...As he was picking himself and his things from the stone floor of the platform, the green-eyed wizard decided that floo travel wasn't his chosen way of magical travel. Still, he was at the platform 9¾, and there indeed was a train going to Hogwarts standing there, with a read steam engine as it's head. Deciding that he should go and find himself a compartment while there still was a plenty, Harry entered the car he was closest to.

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That's all for this chapter, folks! Please, **leave **me a **review**!  
Updates are expected to be weekly for the time being.


	2. Hogwarts

Hello, everyone! Here's the second chapter for the story. Enjoy!

*** Review response**:  
**Siven80**, I'm not sure why writing out how spells and parceltongue will look is bad. After all, we have at least one parcelmouth in the story: Tom Riddle _aka_ Voldem ort. And Draconica's name will not be changed. Period. **Still Not Dead Yet**, this should answer your review about the name too.  
**Dark Dragen**, **kelnom**, **HarryHermioneBellaSwan**, **holyfoxboy**, **Raven Marcus**,** Siriusly Grim**, thanks, folks!  
**RE5 forever**, **Siven80**, my beta insisted on the story being published as HP/DM, but I moved it to HP/OC by now.  
**ChaosLord SilverLink310**, wait and see. =)  
**DamnMeee**, I solemnly swear not to abandon this story.  
**ShadowCub**, only clinging. =)  
**Aries The Ram**, hopefully, I will be able to write something at least a little original. ^_^  
**Still Not Dead Yet**, about Harry being "not the chosen one you are looking for" - I planned to have some fun there. Poor Dumbles...  
**Shinjuu-Hime**, he will have something to help him with healing, but it is not empathy and it won't appear for some time.

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*** Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "_**Harry Potter**_" and its characters in any shape or form.

"human speech"  
'_human thoughts_'  
"_**spells / parseltongue**_"

* * *

Special thanks to _**NARUHAREM FOREVA**_ for beta-reading this story.

* * *

**chapter 2: Hogwarts**

Entering the first free compartment he came across, Harry sat down and pulled a book from his trunk. It was an old tome of biology, published in the late sixties. He had bought it and several more books on biology and medicine after deciding that becoming a doctor – magical or otherwise – was not a bad idea. Plus, the shopkeeper was as big gossip as his aunt, and by now the rumors that would somewhat counteract his hooligan rumors spread by Dursley were running around the neighborhood...

As it was getting closer to eleven in the morning when Hogwarts express would depart towards the school, more and more people were appearing on the platform and more and more students were filling the train, but Harry didn't let them bother him. Fifteen minutes before eleven he was joined by a dark-skinned boy with short black hair, half-blood with strong muggle ties or just a muggleborn, judging by his clothes. But as the boy didn't bother him after asking if he could sit there, Harry was quite OK with him being there...

"Have either of you seen Harry Potter around there?" Asked a lanky red-haired boy, opening the compartment door. The green-eyed wizard looked up from his book. It seemed that he got so engrossed in his reading that he actually missed the moment when the train pulled off... It took Harry only one glance to judge the redhead. And he did not want to be friends with a person like that. He didn't like 'parasites' that wanted to use his supposed fame for their own gain – not that he wanted or needed it himself... He would gladly exchange that and all of his money at Gringotts for even a day with his parents any time.

"No. Haven't seen him." Harry replied, before returning his attention to the book. The redhead swore under his breath and left. The rest of the train ride, bar the appearance of a lady with a trolley full of candies and snacks, went uninterrupted...

* * *

The boat ride to the grand castle of Hogwarts – a part of the local traditions – might have been great were it not raining tonight, but alas... And being assaulted by a poltergeist with water-filled balloons immediately after entering the castle didn't help much. But at least deputy headmistress that took the children from this point was kind enough to cast drying and warming charms on anyone who wanted her help...

Once everyone was dry and warm, professor McGonnagal explained that the sorting will happen in a few minutes and said that she will call them into the Great hall when it was time. Then she left, allowing the first years to theorize on what the sorting would be... The redhead that was looking for Harry Potter on the train was telling everyone who was willing to listen that they will have to wrestle a troll. A girl with bushy dark-brown hair was worrying that she didn't read enough to be sorted... A boy with long black hair was thinking that there will be some kind of a lottery...

Harry didn't listen to those or any other – even more crazy – theories about what the sorting will be. Instead he spotted Draconica among the students and approached her.

"Good evening, my Lady." The green-eyed wizard said, getting her attention. Silently he was thankful that she was standing by herself and not chatting with other girls, or he might not have found enough courage to approach her. Draconica's gray eyes studied him for a couple of moments, before she recognized him as the boy she spoke to in the Madam Malkin's shop – fine robes instead of hand me down clothes did make Harry look quite differently.

"Hello. It's nice to see you again." She greeted him back with a small bow. "I'm afraid, I haven't gotten your name from our last meeting." She added after a small pause.

"No, I haven't told you it back then." Harry said. And seeing a question she was about to ask, he added: "And you will learn it a couple of minutes anyway, so I'm not telling it right now." Draconica huffed in fake annoyance, but gave him an almost invisible smile a moment later. At this moment professor McGonnagal returned to the chamber the children were waiting in and, after giving a brief overview of schools Houses' history led the first years to the Great Hall.

"You still haven't decided which house you want to be in the most?" Draconica asked Harry as they entered the Great Hall.

"No, I still don't really care." The green-eyed wizard replied. "And you still want to be a Slytherin?" The blond witch nodded. The whole Great Hall became silent as the hat that sat on the stool in front of teachers' table opened its "mouth" and started singing. After it finished the song, professor McGonnagal spoke:

"Once I call your name, you will sit on the stool and place the sorting hat on your head. And once it sorts you, you will go sit with your new housemates." Several students laughed at surprised and annoyed face of the redhead – it looked like he was lied to about the sorting... "Abbot, Hannah." A girl with dirty-blond hair, made into two pigtails shyly moved too the stool and, fifteen seconds after placing the hat on her head, was sent to Hufflepuff...

The sorting ceremony progressed with each of the four Hogwarts houses getting new members: Susan Bones, Justin Finch-Fletchley, Wayne Hopkins, Megan Jones and Ernie Macmillan joining Hannah at the yellow and black table; Terry Boot, Mandy Brocklehurst, Michael Corner, Stephen Cornfoot, Kevin Entwhistle, Anthony Goldstein and Su Li becoming new Ravenclaws; Lavender Brown, Seamus Finnigan, Hermione Granger – the bushy haired brainiac girl – and Neville Longbottom joining older students under red and gold Griffindor banner; Millicent Bulstrode, Vincent Crabbe, Tracy Davis, Gregory Goyle and Daphne Greengrass becoming newest members of the Slytherin house.

"Malfoy Draconica." McGonnagal called, and Harry's female friend calmly walked towards the stool with the sorting hat sitting on it. As soon as she placed the hat on her head, it sorted her to the Slytherin house, adding green and silver colors to her previously neutral school robes. Removing the hat, Draconica walked to her house's table in the same calm and aristocratic manner, though she did smile back when she noticed Harry smiling at her.

The sorting continued with Morag McDougal joining Ravenclaw house, Theodore Nott and Pansy Parkinson becoming new Slytherins, Padma Patil too joined blue and bronze house of Ravenclaw while her twin sister Parvati became a Griffindor...

"Potter, Harry." It tool all of Harry's self control not to laugh at the shocked expression on Draconica's face, when she learned that she got friendly with the most famous preteen in the magical world and didn't realize who he was...

'_Hmm... It's nice to finally sort you, Mr. Potter._' The Sorting Hat said in Harry's mind as soon as he placed in on his head. '_And what do we have here? You are hard-working and wouldn't mind helping others when they are in need, but for the most part you are doing things just for yourself... No, Hufflepuff isn't for you, though you do have qualities Helga favored so much..._' The hat continued. '_And you have a bright mind and you seek knowledge, but, again, you seek it not for itself... Rowena's house too isn't for you._'

'_So... It's either Slytherin or Griffindor for me._' Harry thought, noticing only now that he wasn't scared of the fact that magical hat was rummaging through his mind.

'_Indeed, Mr. Potter. You have qualities of both houses, and either can make you great in their own way. You are ambitious and will walk through any obstacles towards your ambition – qualities of a true Slytherin. But at the same time you are quite noble and will fight straight and fair – something Godric wanted to see in his students... Where should I sort you, Mr. Potter?_' The hat asked.

'_And isn't sorting students your job?_' Harry almost snapped at the hat.

'_Yes, it is. But when one can fit into several houses I tend to allow them to make their own choice._' The Sorting Hat responded. '_So, where do you want to go, Mr. Potter?_'

'_I don't really care._' The green-eyed wizard replied. '_But even if the final choice is yours, you should do it soon, people are starting to wonder why I'm sorted for this long._' Harry observed.

'_Impatient are we?.. No, patience is an important quality for a Slytherin, and you seem to be lacking it, Mr. Potter. I have no choice, but to put you in_' "Griffindor!" The Hat announced. Removing the hat, Harry walked towards the red and gold table, trying to ignore their cheering for getting 'the Boy Who Lived'... Sitting at the far end of the Griffindor table, Harry made an eye contact with Draconica to see what her reaction was to him being in the rivaling house. The said girl shrugged, meaning the changes in their 'friendship' were unlikely – and it was what the green-eyed wizard hoped for: Draconica was his first friend and didn't want to lose her...

The sorting continued, and Dean Thomas – the guy who sat in the same compartment as Harry during the train ride – became a Griffindor, while Lisa Turpin joined ranks of the Ravenclaw house. The redhead, whose name was now known to be Ronald Weasley, was sorted into the Griffindor house, and Blaize Zabini became a Slytherin. With that the sorting was finished and, after saying some nonsense, the headmaster opened the welcoming feast...

* * *

After the dessert of the feast was finished by the students and professors, the remaining food disappeared from the tables, and the headmaster got everyone's attention by tapping on his golden goblet.

"Ahem - just a few more words now that we are all fed and watered..." Dumbledore said. "I have a few start-of-term notices to give you. First years should note that the forbidden forest on the grounds is just that, forbidden, to all pupils. And a few of our older students would do well to remember that as well." headmaster's twinkling eyes flashed in the direction of the red-haired twins.

"I have also been asked by Mr. Filch, the caretaker, to remind you all that no magic should be used between classes in the corridors. And for those interested, there is a list of forbidden items, published on his office door. Quidditch trials will be held starting the second week of the term. Anyone interested in playing for their house teams should contact Madam Hooch. And finally, I must tell you that this year; the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death." Several students chuckled at the last bit of information, but Harry could see that the headmaster was quite serious. Still...

"I think it's quite stupid to tell children no to go somewhere and not give a reason why. I's almost like he wants us to try sneaking into there." Harry mumbled under his breath, and a seventh year that sat close enough to hear him nodded in agreement... While the green-eyed wizards was thinking about what exactly was going on with the third-floor corridor, the headmaster added several more words to his speech, before sending the students to the dormitories...

"Follow me." Yet another redhead, but this time with a 'P' – prefect – badge on his robes, said to younger students, and the first years, Harry included, followed him to the Griffindor dormitories...

**~/ *** \~**

Dumbledore once again sat in his office, thinking about the situation with the chosen one of the British wizarding world. Neville wasn't chosen by _that_ wand too, so the ancient mage still wasn't sure which boy was the one. And the sorting too didn't reveal which one was the one: both were sorted into the Griffindor house...

Still, Harry sat away from his peers, while Neville, despite being a very shy boy, was actively chatting with his housemates during the feast. Maybe he really did a mistake all those years ago, and Harry Potter wasn't the chosen one... But then again, why would Voldemort go after Potters, were their son not the chosen one.

'_For now we still have time before Tom returns..._' Dumbledore let out a sigh. '_The chosen one should reveal himself. The chosen one will go save the fake I'm using to lure Tom._' The old headmaster thought, before adding: '_Of course, neither shall know that the stone there is the fake one._' Happy with his plan to both find the real chosen one and deal a blow to the shade of Lord Voldemort at the same time, Dumbledore decided to retire for the day.

**~/ *** \~**

In the Griffindor dormitories Harry found himself facing a problem. A redhead problem to be exact. As soon as the first years were shown where their dormitories was, one Ronald Weasley decided to confront him:

"Why did you lie and said that you haven't seen Harry Potter on the train,when you are him?" The red-haired boy said loudly in an angry voice.

"I haven't looked into a mirror on the train, so I haven't seen myself there." The green-eyed wizard replied with a shrug, almost causing Ron to start yelling at him in anger. He just didn't want to tell the redhead upfront that he just didn't want to be friends with someone who wanted to use his fame for his own gain... Draconica might have being told by her family – he had looked up Malfoy family the previous night – but at least she was friendly enough with him even when she didn't know who he was... Still, if the Weasley boy was as thickheaded as he tried to look, Harry would have to tell him in no uncertain terms that he didn't want to be friends with him before long.

"But mate..." Harry gave the other boy a glare, making him shut up.

"I'm not your mate." The green-eyed wizard hissed out.

"But..." Another glare and Weasley shut up. Almost. "And you were all friendly with a Malfoy. And, mate, you should stop talking to her, before you turn completely dark." Ronald said loudly. Harry gave the boy one more glare.

"She is my friend." He stated, before closing the canopy of his bed. Not before hearing the redhead spouting nonsense about Draconica being an evil witch and him being a dark wizard just for talking civilly to her... Thankfully, Harry's bed was closest to the door out of the dormitory, and next to him was Neville's, who was a good guy. Otherwise, were Ron sleeping in the bed next to his, Harry would have been worried that the redhead will try to 'save' him from the 'darkness'... '_I need to learn privacy wards as soon as possible._' As incompetent as Hagrid was in higher level magics – no offense to the man – he managed to install into Harry's mind that wards were stationary protective enhancements. '_Yeah, definitely need to learn them before long._' He thought as he nodded to himself.

**~/ *** \~**

On the other end of the castle, in the dungeons where Slytherin dormitories resided, Draconica was sitting on her bed in her room – yes, Slytherin students were given personal rooms – thinking about what she leaned today:

The boy whom she had met in Madam Malkin's shop was really Harry Potter, the (supposed) hero of the wizarding world... And he wasn't what her father or anyone else had expected him to be: he wasn't arrogant in his fame – almost like he didn't know about it until that day; nor he was knowledgeable about the magical world, but he had a sharp mind and did a good job of not showing that he knew next to nothing about the world he (now) was a part of.

The scion of Noble house Potter was intelligent and, even thought he was technically a half-blood, he was nice to be around, Draconica had to admit. Better than Crabbe and Goyle her father wanted as her 'bodyguards' – those two were about as intelligent as a couple of gorillas. And better than her contracted, who was not only quite stupid, but he also was eleven years older than she was... Draconica sighed. She didn't want to marry that man, but she had seen the contract herself, and knew that unless something happened, she would be married as soon as she turned sixteen... Oh, well, her mother had taught her that life not always was fare, nor one could get all the he or she wanted, so Draconica had humbled by now...

Returning to the thoughts about Harry Potter, Draconica had to admit that she wouldn't mind keeping their friendship up – Greengrass and Davis were good, but they were about everyone worth her 'friendship' in the Slytherin house. But with Potter being sorted into the rivaling house, keeping up an open friendship was outright impossible – not that a real Slytherin should have any friendships, only associations that were benefiting, but one was easy to present as the other... But thanks to the headmaster stupidly believing that if he put Griffindor and Slytherin together in classes the rivalry would end, it was possible to mask their friendship as just working together in classes for common benefit...

Finally, while her mother, Narcissa Malfoy (nee Black) too was contracted to her father – and the marriage was quite loveless – she had given her daughter a dream of her prince charming, and right now Draconica idly wondered if Harry was that prince for her... But she quickly dismissed the idea as a ridiculous one: they were in rivaling houses, belonged to political factions that were all but at open war, and she was already contracted... There was no way that anything could grow between them...

* * *

That's all, folks!  
The third chapter will be in one week.  
Leave me a **review**.


	3. Lessons

Hello, everyone! Here's the newest chapter for the "_**Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord**_" story. Enjoy!

*** Review response**:  
**Shinjuu - Hakari No Juunishi**, it's good to know that you liked what I wrote for Draconica's part so far. ^_^ And if memory serves me right, I answered to the rest via PM.  
**Dark Dragen**, heh.  
**Still Not Dead Yet**, did that really sound like Draconica thought about marrying Harry? My bad then.  
**Siriusly Grim**, here you go: the next chapter. =)  
**ChaosLord SilverLink310**, **HarryHermioneBellaSwan**, **call015**, **Akira Stridder**, **Highvalour**, thanks, folks!**  
Aries The Ram**, who said that Draconica is the heir? (damn, here is the spoiler to the future chapters...) As for the contract, 'that man' won't play a big role, though sometime into the future his name will be released onto the pages of this story.  
**RE5 forever**, though it wasn't a review to this story, I still had answered it via PM.

* * *

*** Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "_**Harry Potter**_" and its characters in any shape or form.

"human speech"  
'_human thoughts_'  
"_**spells / parseltongue**_"

* * *

Special thanks to _**NARUHAREM FOREVA**_ for beta-reading this story.

* * *

** chapter 3: Lessons**

Next morning Harry woke little past six o'clock - long before any of his dormmates, especially the red-haired one - and, after performing his morning rituals, descended to the common room. He still had about an hour before the breakfast would be served, so the green-eyed wizard decided to continue reading his biology book, from time to time casting a _**tempus**_ charm, so that he won't miss the breakfast, because he was absorbed by the book...

When the clock showed seven thirty in the morning, Harry closed his book and, using a plan for the route between Griffindor common room and the Great Hall he had sketched the previous night, went there to get his breakfast. Even with the said plan it took him some time to get down there – the stairs did change their configuration during the night a little. But as it turned out, there were only so many students in the Great hall, mostly older Ravenclaws...

The breakfast, unlike yesterdays feast, was quite simple, but there was everything a true Englishman could think of having for breakfast. Helping himself with a plate of fried eggs and some bacon and a glass of orange juice, Harry started eating, while reading his book simultaneously: professor McGonnagal, his head of the house wasn't there yet, and she was the one who would give him his timetable...

At about quarter past eight students and professors started filling into the Great hall, and, after having a quick breakfast herself, professor McGonnagal went along the table of her house, giving timetables to the Griffindors. When she reached Harry, who was sitting near the door of the Great hall, he shut his tome and accepted his timetable.

"Thank you, professor." He said, while his eyes scanned the said timetable. It was like this:

_**Monday**__: History of Magic (with Ravenclaw) – Herbology (with Hufflepuff) – lunch – double Charms (with Slytherin).**  
Tuesday**: Transfiguration (with Slytherin) – DADA (with Ravenclaw) – lunch – free period – Herbology (with Hufflepuff).  
**Wednesday**: double DADA (with Slytherin) – lunch – free periods – Astronomy (all houses) at 11 pm.  
**Thursday**: lunch – Herbology (with Slytherin) – Charms (with Ravenclaw).  
**Friday**: double Potions (with Slytherin) – lunch – Transfiguration (with Ravenclaw) – History of Magic (with Hufflepuff)._

Nothing too bad in Harry's opinion. Thought the fact that good nine out of the seventeen lessons were shared with Slytherins was a little bit disconcerting: while he himself had no problems with the house of the 'snakes', not many of his housemates were of the same opinion, while most Slytherins despised Griffindors... Who, again, had that bright idea of pairing them together for the half of the lessons?

History of Magic was taught by a ghost – professor Binns – who kept droning on and on about one goblin rebellion or another, and only Hermione was able to both stay awake and write notes. The rest of the mixed Griffindor and Ravenclaw class was either sleeping or doing something not related to the history lesson... Thankfully, it was just a single lesson...

Herbology, which on Mondays Griffindors shared with 'puffs, was much more lively, compared to the history lesson. It was taught by a roundish kind witch, professor Pomona Sprout, and took place in the Hogwarts greenhouses. So far she had introduced only the most safe plants to her first year students, but – one could say she had promised – with years to come they would advance to more dangerous and more interesting magical plants...

Charms was taught by very short wizard – and most likely not entirely human as he bore some similarities to goblins in his appearance – who had to use several books to stand on to be seen above his table. And as lively as the professor Flitwick was, the first weeks he taught only magical theory behind charms to the first years, so Harry decided not to make the final opinion about the subject until they started practicals... But on the brighter side of things, he managed to talk a little bit to Draconica during charms as Griffindors shared it with Slytherins on Mondays...

* * *

Tuesday's first lesson was transfiguration, which professor McGonnagal started with some demonstration of what could be achieved in the field: first she transformed into a cat and back, before changing her table into a pig and reverting it to its original state of the table with merely a flick of her wand...

At this point point one winded Ronald Weasley ran into the classroom, claiming that he got lost on his way there. This earned the redhead a scolding from McGonnagal, and a threat of turning him into a map, so that he won't get lost again. This caused everyone but Hermione to chuckle or even outright, but still quietly, laugh...

After that little incident, McGonnagal informed the class – once again Griffindors and Slytherins – about the rules of her classroom, which was followed by some theory behind simplest transfiguration of one material into another and of shape alternations. Once that was done, professor sent each student a matchstick and told them to change it into a sewing needle...

In the first ten minutes no one had succeeded in forcing even the slightest change to the matchstick. But unlike _some people_, Harry was analyzing his failures and came to conclusion that the effect wasn't tied to the volume with which he pronounced the transfiguration spell, nor to the amount of power he put into the spell – at least not on this scale – and with him performing the wand movements like professor McGonnagal had shown them, those could be removed from the 'equation'. That left only intent as a 'variable'... But how does one intent something to change? Replacing the mental image of the matchstick with the image of the needle didn't help, so that meant that he should imagine and visualize the whole process of the transformation...

Unfortunately, it seemed had his mental discipline was lacking somewhat as all he managed to do was turning the matchstick round in section and making the sulfuric head smaller. Still, it turned out that this was enough to get a small praise and three points to Griffindor from McGonnagal for his efforts. Hermione, who managed to turn her matchstick silvery a minute later, eared another five points to the house of lions.

"How?" Draconica asked in an barely audible whisper from across the passage between desks. In response, Harry tapped his head with his index finger and mouthed 'intent' to her. The blond girl nodded a 'thank you' and continued her attempts at transforming her matchstick into a needle... On her second try she managed to turn it pointy, for which McGonnagal gave Slytherin two points. "Thank you." Draconica whispered to Harry, and continued her experiments at transfiguration of the matchstick...

Even if Harry thought he had figured the secret behind transfiguration, by the end of the period he managed only to turn his matchstick into a wooden needle without the eyelet... Earning him two more points for the Griffindor house.

* * *

Unfortunately, the Defense Against Dark Arts turned out to be the second worst subject so far – professor Quirrell was a joke: the man was reeking of garlic, was constantly stuttering and seemed to be afraid of his own shadow, and wasn't teaching them anything useful... That, and Harry was getting an odd headache in his scar around the man...

Wednesday started with two more DADA periods, which brought only more headaches to Harry. Thankfully, there were no more lessons after that, until the Astronomy at eleven in the evening. The said subject, like Harry got the feeling when reading the textbook, turn out to be Stargazing: professor Sinistra was good, but all that she taught were names of stars and planets that could be seen through the telescope...

On Thursday first years were allowed to sleep till lunch, which was a good thing since Astronomy ended a little past midnight. And after lunch there was Herbology with Slytherins followed by Charms with Ravenclaws...

Friday for Griffindors began with double potions with Slytherins...

* * *

Professor Snape that taught potions was a nasty man with greasy hair that quite obviously hated three quarters of the students – everyone who didn't wear robes with green and silver... And the moment his eyes landed on Harry's name, Snape made it clear that he hated the green-eyed wizard at least twice as much as anybody else...

After a long speech about how great potions are and how there will be no need for wand usage in his classroom, professor Snape decided to pop-quiz Harry:

"Potter!" He called sharply. "What would I get if I added powered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?" Harry's mind raced, trying to remember a potion with these ingredients from the textbook, but failed to do so. But he did remember properties of the named ingredients when they were used alone, so it was possible to deduce the potion based on the information given. Snape kept staring at Harry, ignoring Hermione's raised hand.

"These ingredients used together would have a strong soporific effect. So, if I were to guess, this is a powerful sleeping drought... Drought of Living Death?" Harry replied.

"Three points from Griffindor for coming to my lesson unprepared. I would have taken five, but by some dumb luck you managed to get the answer right, Potter." Snape said with a sneer. "Let's try again, but this time you will lose your house ten points if you fail to answer." The potions professor made a pause, clearly trying to think of some really hard question. "What for are lacewing flies used in potions?" Once again, professor ignored Hermione's hand.

"Lacewing flies are used in potions that alter appearance of the recipient." Harry replied, this time without more than a second of thinking. Snape gave him a cruel smile.

"Incorrect, Potter. They are used as a stabilizing agent in appearance-altering potions. It appears that you fail to see the truth that your fame is not everything. Ten points from Griffindor." Ron wanted to shout something, but his partner – Dean – managed to keep the redhead from doing that. "Let's try once more, Potter. I want you to bring me some leaves of Cassia. Where will you look for them? Answer me, Potter, or I will take twenty points from Griffindor."

"I'll look in an apothecary, in an ingredient cabinet in a potions laboratory or in a greenhouse. Cassia isn't native to British isles and can't be found there in the wild." Harry replied with a false confidence in his voice. Judging by Snape's face – which looked like he had just swallowed a whole lemon – he got this one right. The professor was about to say something like 'ten points from Griffindor for knowing too much', but Ron chose this moment to break free of his partner's grip.

"Potter, you traitor! What are you doing losing our points!" Glare from professor Snape made the redhead shut up instantly...

"Weasley..." He hissed in a low dangerous voice. "I do not tolerate such outbursts in my classroom. Five points from Griffindor." Now it was Ron's turn to look like he had swallowed a lemon. "Now answer me, Weasley, what is a bezoar and where you will look for it?"

"And why should I know? Am I a know-it-all? Ask Granger, she is." The redhead replied angrily. This outburst cost Griffindor five more points.

"Granger you say..." Snape said in a sneering voice. "No... But how about ms. Brown? How would you answer?" Lavender too didn't knew, which had the potions professor taking another five points form the house of lions.

"For your information, Weasley, Brown, bezoar is a stone found in a stomach of a goat. And it will save you from most poisons." Looking at the clock, Snape noticed that he had used a good part of his first lesson for today already. "Today you will be brewing a potion to cure boils. Instructions are on the board." With a flick of his wand he made the said instructions appear. "You have until lunch. Begin."

Five minutes later Harry discovered that it was a great mistake of his of pairing himself with Neville. The chubby boy was nice, sure, but he was about as inept at brewing potions as one could be, and Snape practically melting their cauldron with his glare didn't help the situation at all. So, deciding that his partner would do better at preparing the ingredients, Harry took brewing in his own hands, which – in the end – proved to be a wise decision: thanks to Dursley he could concentrate on his task and not let Snape's hurtful remark distract him. His cooking skills were a great help there too...

Their potion turned out to be a couple of shades darker than it should be, but Snape marked it as 'passable', while Draconica's and Daphne's – which was about the same – got 'outstanding'. Scowling at the obvious hate his professor had for him, Harry collected his things and, throwing his bag over the shoulder, headed to the Great hall to get something to eat for lunch... But as soon as left the classroom, he was sent into the wall by a very angry redhead.

"Potter! How dare you lose us the points good people had earned, you traitorous bastard!" Ron yelled as he tried to physically assault his classmate. Alas, he was not very fast, and Harry managed to get away from the strike rather easily.

"At least I earned more than I lost!" The green-eyed shot back, but it seemed to only make the redhead angrier. With a determination to hurt burning like hellfire in his eyes, Ron attacked again and, managing to fight his way through Harry's defenses, punched him in the stomach – thankfully, not as hard as Dudley, that is when the fatso managed to catch him.

"And what do we have here?" Said a sneering voice that belonged to professor Snape. "Fighting in the corridors, Potter, Weasley? Five points from Griffindor each. And you are doing it like some dirty muggles? That's another five points each from Griffindor." Ron immediately switched his anger to the professor, and started yelling at Snape for taking points from him when 'it was all Potter's fault'. This resulted in potions professor giving a detention to the redhead... Using this distraction to his 'advantage', Harry just slipped away.

* * *

Even though they had transfiguration just after the lunch, Harry decided to visit his head of the house right away. As it turned out, when he had reached the transfiguration classroom, professor McGonnagal just finished her lesson with the fifth years.

"You wanted something, Mr. Potter?" The Scottish witch asked when she saw him standing by the door. Harry nodded.

"Yes, professor. I'd like to complain about points being unfairly taken from Griffindor by professor Snape earlier today. He took ten points from me for fighting, even though I only protected myself and wasn't counterattacking." McGonnagal nodded.

"Very well, Mr. Potter. But I want a proof of that. A simple oath that, had you lied to me, would have you gaining a temporary stigma of a liar, would suffice." Harry nodded: this way of determining whether he was telling truth or not seemed fare.

"OK... How do I make such an oath." He asked.

"Most magical oath are made this way: you say 'I', followed by your full name, 'do swear on', here you insert what on you do swear – this would determine your punishment for breaking the oath – 'that', and say what what you are making an oath about. You must be holding your wand while making your oath." Professor McGonnagal explained. "There are some other forms of making an oath, but that's beside the point."

"All right, professor." The green-eyed wizard replied, as he drew his wand. "I, Harry James Potter, do swear on a stigma of liar that what I said to professor McGonnagal earlier this lunch break is truth." There was a slight flash of magic, but nothing else happened.

"Very well." The professor replied. "As the deputy headmistress I hereby restore ten points unjustly taken today from the house Griffindor student Harry James Potter for fighting by professor Severus Snape." Harry could have sworn that he felt the castle hum for a moment. "But as an advice for the future, Mr. Potter, if you're making an oath about such simple things, try not to make it on the pain of permanent penalty..." Harry nodded. "Is that all, Mr. Potter?" Professor McGonnagal asked then. Harry nodded again. "Then you are free to go now, Mr. Potter."

"Thank you, professor." The green-eyed wizard said, before turning around and heading to the Great hall. But before he had made even ten steps, professor McGonnagal called him.

"One more thing, Mr. Potter. While your mother was a first generation magic user, albeit one of the most talented witches of this century, your father was from a noble house that has several centuries of history in the magical world. Even more, if you include Potters' history before they were given the title. As such, it is possible that you have another, more official name, even if 'Harry' is acceptable too." She said. "I suggest, you contact Gringotts or the Archives of the Ministry of Magic regarding this matter." Harry nodded, his brain still processing this information.

"Thank you, professor." Was all that he could say...

* * *

That's all, folks!  
The forth chapter will be published in a week.  
Leave me a **review**.


	4. Of flying and quidditch

Hello, everyone! Here's the newest chapter for the "_**Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord**_" story. Enjoy!

*** Review response**:  
**The Sinful**, hope, this will give you something to let you give your verdict.  
**Dark Dragen**, Serpent Lord is Lord Slytherin, as you can guess. But that particular plot line will not be touched for some time (a lot of time, actually)  
**Still Not Dead Yet**, hehehe *cough* sorry, hehehe!  
**Highvalour**, was that so hard to guess... Well, he's just biased lazy - and not particularly clever - jealous brat without manners. I will dislike him for as long as he remains like that. Of course, he has some redeeming characteristics, but they don't out-weight his 'bad' ones.  
**m-f42**, Ron there has animosity towards Harry just because Harry refused to be his friend. Ron will grow out of it eventually (2nd year), but for now he'll be bashed from time to time.

* * *

*** Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "_**Harry Potter**_" and its characters in any shape or form.

"human speech"  
'_human thoughts_'  
"_**spells / parseltongue**_"

* * *

Special thanks to _**NARUHAREM FOREVA**_ for beta-reading this story.

* * *

**chapter 4: Of flying and quidditch**

While Ronald was busy by first consuming his dinner, and then by his detention with Filch the caretaker, Harry was trying to successfully cast a charm he had found in the forth year books: the attentions disruptor charm. And while this charm was not as good as notice-me-not charm, nor it was as long lasting, it required – if it was cast successfully – a lot of mental concentration to find the object under it. And mental concentration, from Harry's observations on his redheaded dormmate, was something that the youngest male Weasley lacked. Unless it was about food...

It took Harry almost three hours to cast the charm correctly with himself keyed into it – he did want to fight it every time he wanted to access his things or go to sleep... The green-eyed wizard smiled evilly than: it was time for the payback. As Neville, Dean and Seamus were down in the common room, Harry didn't need to hide what he was doing – there was no one who could see him and tell others – so he approached Ron's bed and cast the charm over it too, this time keying no one in, so that he could play an innocent bystander and fellow victim of the prank: without recasting, the charm would last for about three days. Once the charm was in place, Harry quickly returned to his own bed...

That night four boys had a good laugh at the misfortune of certain redhead that couldn't find his own bed...

**~/ *** \~**

The second week for Harry went much better than the first one. Mostly because he was getting familiar with the castle and wasn't getting lost as often. And before potions of Friday he had earned his house enough points to cover what Snape – err... professor Snape – has taken from him the previous week. This week the potions master had skipped the ...questioning of his students altogether and gave them the lesson's task outright. And as his glare had little effect on Harry, who once again was doing the actual brewing, the potions double period went alright for the green-eyed wizard...

On Wednesday that week Harry visited Hagrid at his hut on the castle grounds near the Forbidden forest. The gigantic man was very friendly – though his cooking was inedible for normal humans at very least – and knew a lot about animals and the forest... But when the green-eyed wizard was leaving, he saw a newspaper – the Daily prophet – with a caption that caught his attention: "Failed robbery of the Gringotts bank" While Hagrid was busy putting cups away from the table, Harry's eyes quickly scanned the printed text. The robbery failed because the vault they were after was emptied earlier that day – the same day Hagrid had brought him here – while the robbers somehow managed to get away unnoticed. While it was worrisome that someone could sneak past goblin defenses, right now Harry payed it little mind, though he did note that whatever the robbers were after was now in Hogwarts...

**~/ *** \~**

On Monday evening of third week into the school year a note appeared on the information board in the Griffindor common room, saying that there will be a flying lesson on Thursday that week. It immediately started a competition among pureblood and half-blood first year for the most ridiculous story about they talents on the broom. And in Griffindor, Ron Weasley was a definite champion in that... Oh well, the lesson would show whether he had any real talent on the broom or not...

But the green-eyed wizard was more interested in what the Archives of the ministry would say to him about his name – he did as professor McGonnagal suggested and sent a request there to look his registered name up. It already was more than a week, but having an idea about – from his uncle's tirades about useless bureaucrats – how the ministries work, it was unlikely that he would receive a response any time soon...

On Wednesday Neville's grandmother sent him a remembrall – a small glass ball that became filled with red mist if it sensed that the one who held it was forgetting something – and this made the chubby boy a target for jokes from several Slytherin students, mostly Nott. But after Harry politely pointed out that making such jokes was below their social standing, the offenders shut up and didn't bother Longbottom scion anymore, for which Neville was most thankful.

* * *

Thursday finally came and the weather was quite good for flying, even if a bit cool and breezy. At least, the sky was clear and the autumn sun was shining... After the Charms lesson with Ravenclaws was finished, the Griffindors hurried to the school grounds for the flying lesson. But Slytherin students were already there, standing in front of the school brooms in a row with a gap between boys and girls. So Griffindors had no other option but to stand behind the other line of the brooms. Almost as soon as both houses were ready for the lesson, madam Hooch, that held some resemblance to a gray hawk appeared.

"Welcome to your flying lesson." The woman said, while her yellow eyes scanned the first years in front of her. Everyone was standing by a broomstick, so there was no problem yet. "Stick out your lead hand over the broom and say 'Up!'" She instructed. Immediately air was filled with students' shouting. Harry managed to make his broomstick fly into his hand on his first try, while most others had less luck: Hermione's was twitching on the ground, Neville's wasn't moving at all and Blaise's struck the dark-skinned boy on his face, which made several Griffindors laugh... Madam Hooch then showed them how to mount their brooms without sliding off the end, and walked up and down the rows correcting their grips. "Now, when I blow my whistle, you kick off from the ground, hard," said Madam Hooch. "Keep your brooms steady, rise a few feet, and then come straight back down by leaning forward slightly. On my whistle. Three. Two. One..." But before she could whistle, Neville's broom started rising into the air on its own, boy's nervousness being the most likely reason for that.

"A-ah!" The boy cried out, definitely preferring to be standing on the solid ground right now, but he just couldn't make his broomstick to start descending, and it kept rising.

"Come back, boy!" Madam Hooch shouted but Longbottom still had no luck in regaining control over the broom. Then Harry noticed something: Neville's grip on the handle of the broomstick was slipping... Without much thinking, Harry pushed off the ground and sped towards where Neville was with a speed that the broom that would fail even at sweeping the floor shouldn't be able to achieve... So when the chubby boy slipped off his broom and started falling, Harry was there to catch him. And he did catch his falling classmate, but there another problem appeared while – thanks to the chores Dursley had him do – Harry had the strength to catch Neville, but his broomstick wasn't powerful enough to keep the extra weight in the air and he too started heading downwards at an alarming speed.

At this point the green-eyed wizard did the most foolish and heroic thing in his life: when they were but nine feet off the ground, he threw the broomstick away and positioned himself and Neville to get the minimal damage from the fall – another useful thing he had learned while in Dursley's care. The landing was still very rough, and the horizontal speed that was still there didn't help at all... Neville got his right wrist broken and some skin torn on the same hand. Harry got it much worse, as the rough ground tore skin from his back, along with a heavy damage to his clothes.

"No one is to move while I take these two to the hospital wing." Madam Hooch said sternly. "Leave your brooms where they are or you'll be expelled faster than you can say 'Quidditch'!" While Neville could walk on his own easily, she had to levitate Harry, to prevent further damage to his body...

* * *

The hospital wing was a very clean place, located on the first floor of the east wing of the castle, which smelled, well, like a hospital. It was ran by Madam Pomfrey, an over-protective of her patients medi-witch, who immediately started applying treatments to the boys' wounds, while muttering about unsafe flying lessons under her breath... At the same time madam Hooch was finishing magically repairing Harry's clothes.

"First, Mr. Potter..." Madam Hooch said once the green-eyed wizard was no longer constantly scowling from pain. "...I will award forty point to Griffindor for saving your classmate, but I would strongly advise you against doing it like this again." Harry nodded weakly. "Also, seeing the way you handled your broom, I can't help but think that flying is in your blood. I will speak with Minerva about the possibility of allowing you to try for the quidditch team. Merlin knows, she's in a need for a good flier. But you are not to speak about this, understand." Harry nodded. "And you too, Mr. Longbottom. We don't need any rumors of that kind flying around the castle." Neville nodded. "Very well. I'll take my leave now. I still have a class to teach. Have a quick ...and painless recovery, you two." And the witch left, leaving two first years to the Madam Pomfrey's tender mercies...

**~/ *** \~**

Harry was released from the hospital wing next morning with barely enough time to eat breakfast and run up to the Griffindor tower to get his things for the day's lessons. And the extra attention he got for his stunt – both positive attention and negative one - the latter one from those who thought he was just showing off – wasn't very helpful for the young Griffindor. Professor Snape was especially vindictive towards Harry that Friday morning and took about twenty points from him for some stupid reasons like breathing too loud.

The transfiguration went much better than potions, as not only professor McGonnagal wasn't looking for an excuse to make his life miserable like Snape did – the transfiguration professor was actually proud of what he did yesterday – but also the transfiguration was becoming easier for the green-eyed wizard, which had him earning back some points he had lost earlier this day... Finally the bell rang and the students started packing their things back into their bags.

"Mr. Potter, please stay." Professor McGonnagal said, making the green-eyed wizard head towards her table instead of the door out of the classroom.

"Yes, professor?" He asked.

"Rolanda came to me yesterday and spoke to me about your talents on the broom and said that I should see whether it is possible to have you try out for quidditch this year." Harry tried to make the best imitation of shock he could, but he was sure the professor McGonnagal saw through his act. "In turn, I asked Mr. Wood, the Griffindor quidditch team captain, and he said, and I quote 'If this boy is as good with catching little balls as he is with catching his classmates, I see no problem with him being on the team'. Apparently, he saw you catching Mr. Longbottom from the classroom's window." Professor McGonnagal said. "As such, I asked the headmaster for permission for you to be on a team and he has agreed, under the condition that you are accepted through tryouts... Unfortunately, the headmaster was adamant that you won't be allowed to have your own broomstick this year. He said that bending too much rules for you will be seen as a sign of favoritism, which will be bad not only for you and headmaster, but the school itself." Harry nodded.

"I understand, professor." After a small pause, he continued. "Professor, is there a rule saying that a student can't own more than one broom? In case I'm selected for the team, I could buy one and transfer my ownership of it to someone on the team until the end of the year." Professor McGonnagal nodded. This was a great idea, no matter how Slytherin-ish it sounded.

"No, there is no such rule, Mr. Potter." She said. "Now, I know you have another lesson right now, so I suggest you hurry up if you don't want to be late." Harry nodded and hurried out of the transfiguration classroom.

* * *

Later that day, after the forth lesson finished, Harry was approached by a burly fifth year student, Oliver Wood, in the Griffindor common room.

"Potter, professor McGonnagal asked me to see if you fit for the seeker position on our quidditch team. So I want you to be at the stadium tomorrow by eight in the morning for the try outs." Oliver said. "And don't expect me to go easy on you just because you are a first year. And if you do become our seeker, I advise you to keep up with your studies, as professor McGonnagal said that if you start failing your studies because of quidditch, she would ban you from it till the third year, and I would hate to lose another seeker of the team." Harry nodded. While Wood seemed to be a quidditch fanatic, he also understood that you needed to do well in classes to play.

"I have to become seeker first." The green-eyed wizard said. "But I'll be there."

"Very well." Oliver said. "Have a good evening." And with that he headed to an empty corner of the common room to do his homework or something like that...

**~/ *** \~**

Being an early riser, Harry had no problems with getting to the quidditch stadium with some time to spare. And as it was, there were only three other students trying out for the seeker position, and another five who wanted to be a chaser. Oliver Wood appeared in front of them at eight sharp, already dressed in the Griffindor quidditch uniform and with a broom on his back. He led the nine students trying out into the lockers and had them change into the uniform as well. After that Wood gave a quick intro into the world of quidditch, along with what he expected from the members of his team. Once he finished, he gave each a school broom, to be sure that no one had an advantage over another in a form of a better broom, and led them out onto the stadium, where the rest of the team – the Weasley twins and two girls, named Alicia Spinnet and Angelina Johnson – were standing.

"Alright, maggots. Those who want to try out for chaser, please follow the ladies here..." Oliver nodded towards Alicia and Angelina. "...To that end of the stadium. I will join you there after a moment." He said, while gesturing to the far end of the stadium. "Seeker wannabes. I will now release fifteen snitches. You have two hours to catch as many as you can, while twins will try to prevent from catching any by playing as the beaters of an opposing team. If we will have a draw, this will be repeated with the winners of the previous round. Is that clear?" Wood barked. After getting a positive answer from the four seeker wannabes, he released two large black balls called bludgers, and – once the Weasley twins were in the air and ready for their task – fifteen tiny winged golden balls called snitches were released too. "Start!" Wood barked, starting the two hour timer...

* * *

The next two hours were a brutal fight for survival, as Weasley twins weren't going easy on the four seeker wannabes by any means. Two of them didn't even 'live' till the end of the two hours. Thankfully for him, Harry was good enough on the broom not to end in the hospital after just the try outs... And with eight snitches he had caught, he was sure of his victory – he got more than a half of them! Still the game seemed to be quite violent and was more of an excuse for him to fly...

Exactly two hours after the seeker part of the try outs started, Wood approached them and asked to show the snitches they had caught. With his eight against three of his last remaining opponent, Harry was a sure victor.

"Congratulations, Potter." Oliver said. The other boy who tried out for the seeker position, some third year whose name Harry didn't remember right now, scowled at the younger boy, but admitted his defeat. "I have heard from professor McGonnagal that you will have problems with the broom. Is that right?"

"Headmaster bent only the rule about no first years on the teams for me." The green-eyed wizard admitted. "But there is no rule against owning more than one broom, so I need to buy a broom and transfer my ownership of it to someone on the team till the end of the year." Oliver nodded.

"Still, what broom are you thinking of. You know, as a seeker, you will need a good one, Cleansweeper seven or Nimbus-2000..." The older boy said.

"Sorry, but I don't have that much money. I have asked for a broom catalog yesterday, and the best one I can get would be a Cleansweeper four or Comet-270 for new ones or Cleansweeper six if I were to get a second-hand one." Harry replied. He knew that his vault had about two thousands galleons, but for all he knew, those were his money for the entire seven years of schooling, so he couldn't spend that much at this point... Wood shook his head.

"The difference between five latest Cleansweepers is in their top speed, and as a keeper, I don't need it that much. I will give you my sixth and use your forth, as long as you bring us the victory." Harry nodded. "Now, Harry, you can go. The first training session will be tomorrow at seven. Don't be late."

* * *

That's all, folks!  
The fifth chapter will be published in a week.  
Leave me a **review**.


	5. Halloween

Hello, everyone! Here's the newest chapter for the "_**Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord**_" story. Enjoy!

*** Review response**:  
**ChaosLord SilverLink310**, Draconica will appear in sixth and (indirectly) in the seventh chapters, but, yeah, till the third year she won't be playing a really major role in the story.  
**The Sinful**, don't know whether this will reassure you or not, but there WILL be lemons in this story... =)  
**Dark Dragen**, thanks, hopefully, I will manage not to disappoint you with the later chapters.  
**Still Not Dead Yet**, heh.  
**mitremlap**, **Reishin Amara**, **naruchan84**, thanks.  
**3domfields**, sorry, tough luck there for you. 'Cause it appears that I have both of those in the story.  
**xavierp**, there IS Dragon constellation, though maybe it should have been changed into a female name some other way... Oh well, too late to change that. As for Draconica being too 'girly'... Don't even know what to say there. I will correct the errors you've pointed, but knowing how lazy I'm, it'll be some time before that is done.

* * *

*** Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "_**Harry Potter**_" and its characters in any shape or form.

"human speech"  
'_human thoughts_'  
"_**spells / parseltongue**_"

* * *

Special thanks to _**NARUHAREM FOREVA**_ for beta-reading this story.

* * *

**chapter 5: Halloween**

The Sunday practice was, well, brutal. Oliver allowed harry to use his Cleansweep six, but Weasley twins still managed to give the green-eyed wizard hard time as they relentlessly attacked him with bludgers. And the bloody snitch saw to Harry zipping around the stadium in a very cold wind for almost an hour, before it was caught. Still, the practice went well, and Harry decided that he might love the game, even if just flying still was better...

On Tuesday morning Harry was sitting between Alicia and Katie and across from Oliver as the team protected their new seeker from 'attacks' from a jealous red-haired prat, the two beaters unfortunately called their brother... When the morning post arrived, a group of seven owls, carrying a large package – a broomstick in a paper wraps – headed towards where the Griffindor quidditch team was sitting, which immediately caused many students and some teachers turn their heads to look there. An one potions master decided to pay a visit to the red and gold table, hoping to take some points from Potter...

"First years are forbidden from owning their own brooms." Snape sneered, looking at the still wrapped broom lying between Harry and Oliver. "I think that twenty points from Griffindor and a life-long confiscation of the broom should be enough to teach you, Potter, that even you are not above the rules."

"But, professor Snape, this broom is mine." Wood said, showing the order tag, that was attached to the package. "And as there is no rule against owning more than one broomstick for older students, I would be thankful if you restored our house points that you have taken on an empty assumption." The potions master let out an annoyed sneer and restored twenty points he had just taken from Griffindor, before taking ten for 'making him come there' and stalking back to the teachers' table.

The Griffindor quidditch team grinned almost simultaneously as their captain and seeker managed to circumvent one of Hogwarts' more enforced rules: they got a broom for their first year seeker!

**~/ *** \~**

Between his classes, homework, self-study and quidditch practices, Harry had little time to worry about anything else, which saved him from lots of headaches that would stem from the need to avoid Ron the prat whenever possible and remain calm in face of his tirades about being a glory-seeking bastard when he was not...

The time progressed from sunny and warm September to cool and windy October, and before he knew it, Halloween came. The castle was now decorated with live bats, spider webs and the likes. And, of course, there were pumpkins with scary faces carved on them and candles inside hovering here and there – most of those, though, were in the Great hall – bringing the atmosphere to levels that Harry had never felt before. Of course, as great as this holiday was there, the green-eyed wizard felt no desire to celebrate as this also was the day his parents were murdered by Voldemort... But it was only noon now, and he still had two periods and then some more time before the feast.

Herbology was OK: Neville was understanding of his situation and kept strictly to the lesson topics. Dean and Parvati, who worked on extracting seeds from red-stem brier berries at the same table, were a bit too cheerful for Harry's tastes, but he understood that they had no dark memories associated with this day and couldn't be faulted for waiting anxiously for the evening feast...

Charms, that on Thursdays Griffindors shared with Ravenclaws, on the other hand, took the green-eyed wizard's mind completely off of brooding about his Halloween bad memories: professor Flitwick had them practicing _**wingardium leviosa,**_ a charm that allowed things to be levitated– big white feathers in this case. Already knowing from his experiments in transfiguration that intent was an important part of any spell, it took Harry only six tries, before he successfully levitated his feather, earning Griffindor five points. A minute later Padma and Su from Ravenclaw and Hermione form his own house too succeeded in performing the charm. And another couple of tries later Neville joined the 'club'...

While the two Griffindor boys and some of the more 'playful' Ravenclaws were having their feathers race against each other above the tables, Hermione was trying to be helpful in giving some tips to Ron, who was having troubles with the spell – no wonder there, as the redhead was shouting the incantation with his pronunciation not even close to the correct one, while waving his arms like a windmill... Unfortunately for the bushy-haired girl, her help wasn't appreciated there, and it only made the Weasley boy more irritated.

By the end of the period, the red-haired boy was in such a bad mood, that snapped at the poor girl, when she tried to help him once again.

"For Merlin's sake, leave me alone, you stupid annoying bitch! No one can stand you, you walking nightmare that will never have any friends! Go disappear somewhere so normal people won't have to suffer you..." Ron's tirade was stopped by Harry's fist connecting with his cheek.

"And you're just a self-centered prat that insulted his classmate into tears just for trying to help." The green-eyed wizard hissed through his teeth as he glared at the Weasley boy. "I'm ashamed of being in the same house with you." Deciding that he could continue berating the redhead later, Harry ran out of the classroom, hoping that he could help Hermione, but the crying girl was nowhere to be seen, and going looking for her in the castle that had hundreds of rooms, some of those inaccessible to him didn't seem like a good idea... Hopefully, the bushy-haired witch would be sensible enough not to do something really stupid.

* * *

Hermione didn't show up at the Halloween feast – not that Harry was there to celebrate. For him it was just an obligation – and the young wizard was starting to get worried about his classmate. From two of his Hufflepuff yearmates, Susan Bones and Hannah Abbot, he had heard that Hermione was in the one of the girls' toilets crying her eyes out and telling everyone to leave her the hell alone.

'_Oh, well..._' The green-eyed boy sighed. He decided to give the girl some more time to herself. But were she not at the common room an hour before the curfew, he would go get her... Looking around the Great hall, Harry noticed that not only Hermione was missing: professor Quirrell too wasn't present, being the only one from the staff not there. Shrugging, the green-eyed wizard returned his attention to the meal... Twenty or so minutes after the headmaster finished his speech and the feast started, professor Quirrell came sprinting into the great hall with his turban askew on his head and terror on his face.

"Troll! Troll in the dungeons!" The turban-wearing man shouted in a (fake-) terrified voice. "Thought you ought to know..." And then the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor sank to the floor in a dead faint. Students immediately started shouting in terror – professor Quirrell acted too good for it to be just a joke – and it took Dumbledore a powerful booming spell to bring silence.

"Prefects!" The old man rumbled. "Lead your houses back to the dormitories immediately!" Something just seemed off about this order... Then it hit Harry like a sledgehammer: Hufflepuff and Slytherin dormitories were in dungeons! And while the 'Hufflepuff' part of the dungeons was safe, because it consisted of the 'puffs' dormitories, the kitchen, several storerooms and a couple of not currently used classrooms, the 'Slytherin' part was not. As such, Slytherins had a chance of being attacked by the troll, which more likely than not would lead to several students spending some time in the hospital wing... Or worse.

'_What is the headmaster thinking? It's almost like he doesn't care about that quarter of the students._' Then another thought occurred to the green-eyed wizard: '_Hermione doesn't know about the troll! I have to warn her!_' While Percy was trying to navigate Griffindors onto the way towards their common room, Harry mixed up with Hufflepuffs to separate from them later to go warn Hermione... Neville, though, saw his dorm mate's maneuver and followed him.

"Hey, Harry, where are you going?" The scion of the house Longbottom asked as he caught up with him. Not stopping so that he won't waste any precious time, the green-eyed wizard answered:

"Hermione doesn't know about the troll. We must take her to the safety of the Griffindor common room, or anywhere else the thing can't reach us at." Neville nodded and continued running alongside his housemate.

* * *

Thankfully, the 'coordinates' Susan and Hannah had 'provided' were indeed correct – the two Griffindor wizards could hear Hermione still crying in the girls' toilet. The boys looked at each other, before entering the toilet.

"Go away! Leave me alone!" The bushy-haired witch pleaded from the stall she was occupying. Harry approached that stall and knocked on the door.

"Hermione, you should go back to the common room." He said in a soft yet commanding tone. Unfortunately, the only effect it had on Hermione was her recognizing that there was a male in girls' toilet, which forced the girl into her bossy rule-following mode.

"What are you doing here?" She asked through her sobs. "You aren't allowed there!" Harry sighed and tried again.

"Hermione, there is an emergency in the school: the troll found its way into the dungeons and you might be in danger there!" This finally had the effect on the Griffindor witch, and she opened the stall's door, only to freeze in place and scream. At the same time the green-eyed wizard finally felt Neville tapping his shoulder.

"Um... W-We have a big problem there." The pudgy boy said. The next moment the troll – it had found the trio of first-years in the toilet – let out a roar and attacked. Harry threw himself and Neville on the floor while Hermione dumbly stepped backwards. The troll's club nearly hit the witch as it passed just several inches in front of her face, showering the girl with splinters from the smashed wood partitions.

Knowing that fighting the troll was a suicide – no one under fifth or sixth year was taught in the classes any spells that could overcome the magical resistance of the beast's hide – Harry decided to use the other way out of their current predicament: running away. The problem there was in the fact that the said troll was standing between them and the door out of the toilet. And with the beast already attacking again, the young wizard knew that without getting its attention off him and his housemates getting past the troll was a suicide too. But so far they weren't taught any spells that could be used for averting beast's attention. Or were they? Transfiguration, color changing spells and levitation charm were pretty much useless there as they either couldn't achieve the desired effect or required too much concentration to be of any use in the current situation. His _**nox**_ spell so far had too little radius of the effect to hide three first-years. That pretty much left him with just _**lumos**_ spell. But the said charm created the ball of light at the tip of the wand, while Harry needed it somewhere behind troll's head...

"..." Hoping for the best, the green-eyed wizard willed a ball of light flash into the existence behind beast's left ear. The troll, being as dumb as it was, switched its attention to it, allowing three first-years to run for their lives, actually managing to get past it and out of the toilet, before it realized that its prey was gone...

"Harry, where are you running? Griffindor common room is the other way." Neville asked as the young Potter led them towards a narrow and steep stair that led onto the fourth floor north wing.

"Trolls may be extremely stupid, but they are generally faster that we can run, and they can track us by our scent." The green-eyed wizard replied. "But the narrow stairs will give us a tactical advantage over the troll. Just believe me." Neville nodded unsurely while Hermione said nothing, just tried to keep up with the boys... It took the three of them almost two minutes to reach the top of the stairs... At the same time the troll appeared at the bottom of these stairs.

"What now?" Hermione asked as she tried to pull the doors into the north wing open, but failed to do so. "We have nowhere to run!" Harry ignored her for a moment and talked to Neville, who stood to his right, instead.

"When I say 'three', levitate its right leg forward and upwards and to the right. I'll levitate the left one to the left." Having no other option than to rely on his classmate, the Longbottom scion nodded. "One... Two..." Harry waited for the troll to get high enough so that dropping it down from the stairs would have some effect. "Three..."

"_**Wingardium leviosa!**_" Two boys cried simultaneously, while guiding troll's lower limbs in a fashion they needed. And like Harry thought, the beast dropped down onto the stairs with a loud 'thud', before it started sliding downwards, gaining quite a speed thanks to the steep slope of the stairs... There was the second 'thud' as the troll's head hit the floor at the stairs' bottom with the power that should have had knocked the giant out, maybe even kill it.

"It worked." Neville observed, too mentally tired after the race against death for any serious emotion. Harry just nodded in agreement with his housemate... Suddenly the three first-years hear approaching clatter of heels, and a couple of seconds later professor McGonnagal walked out of the corridor and stopped next to the downed troll. The transfiguration professor studied the troll with her eyes, just to make sure that the beast wouldn't be of any danger, before looking upwards, at the three members of her house.

"What are you doing here? The headmaster ordered everyone to back to the common rooms." McGonnagal asked sternly. The bushy-haired witch opened her mouth to say something, but Neville was faster.

"Professor, Hermione wasn't at the feast and didn't know about the troll, but she was... um... reported to be at the lower levels of the castle, she was in danger. So Harry and I went to warn her. Unfortunately, the troll found us before we could take Hermione away from where she was. So... um... We kinda had to fight it." The pudgy boy explained. Professor McGonnagal rubbed her temples, no doubt trying to fight a coming headache.

"And how in the seven hells did you manage to defeat it?" She asked, already fearing the answer a bit... Harry ruffled the hair on the back of his head as he answered sheepishly.

"We used levitation spell to drop it from the stairs." The transfiguration professor sighed. If the things continue like this, her hair will be completely gray before these three will sit their OWLs...

"Very well..." She said with another sigh. "Potter, Longbottom, ten points from Griffindor each for acting recklessly and not telling anyone where you went. And ten points to Griffindor each for helping your classmate. And another thirty points to Griffindor for the sheer dumb luck of taking down a grown up mountain troll and living to tell the tale." The three first-years looked at each other, not completely believing that they had just earned thirty points to their house. "Now, return to the common room, before I'm forced to take those points away for been out during the early curfew." Harry, Neville and Hermione nodded and hurried towards the Griffindor tower...

* * *

When they were finally in the safety of the red and gold common room of their house, Hermione turned to face two boys that very well could have saved her life tonight. Ron's hurtful words were still at the forefront of her mind, making her confused as to why someone would fight a troll for her. Of course, she had already thanked Harry and Neville several times while they were still on their way towards the Griffindor tower, but...

"Um... Not to sound unappreciative of you or anything, but... Why did you save me?" She asked. Harry looked up from the book he was currently reading into her eyes.

"Do we need a reason to save our classmate? Besides, aren't you our friend?" He said.

"Am I?" The bushy-haired witch asked. Harry and Neville nodded, making the girl smile brightly. The she enveloped her two saviors into a hug, before running up to the girl's dormitories, leaving two stunned, a bit confused and blushing boys behind...

**~/ *** \~**

Albus Dumbledore wasn't having the best evening tonight. He let Quirrell guide the troll into the castle, hoping that one of the possible 'chosen' ones would run and save that muggleborn witch – Granger? – from the beast. He just never expected both to do that... From Severus's report the troll died from its skull being crashed against the marble floor as the beast was dropped from the stairs. And neither Potter nor Longbottom used anything more powerful that the levitation charm to do that...

'_Who are you, the chosen one?_' The ancient headmaster asked himself as he popped a lemon drop into his mouth. '_If you don't appear soon, the world will be doomed to the darkness Tom will spread once again._' He needed to do something to find The One, but he needed to do it from the shadows if his plan was to succeed. And so, Albus Dumbledore started scheming his next move...

* * *

That's all, folks!  
The sixth chapter will be published in a week.  
Leave me a **review**.


	6. Magical stones

Hello, everyone! Here's the newest chapter for the "_**Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord**_" story. Enjoy!

*** Review response**:  
xavierp, Draconica is a true Slytherin, more so than any canon girl of the said house; and the role of the-one-who-causes-problems for the 'golden trio' will be filled soon enough.  
The Sinful, Akira Stridder, heh.  
Siriusly Grim, Dark Dragen, Highvalour, Kimberley Krystine Mayfield, thanks, folks!  
RE5 forever, sorry, but if there will be bushing, it'll be unintended. I can't, it seems, write intentional one...  
ChaosLord SilverLink310, I think I have already mentioned that there'll be HG/NL side pairing, but, yes, Hermione with have warm feeling towards both boys.  
Kharneth666, not sure if it qualifies, but there was a close-cousins-relationship story with fem-Draco. ("_**Harry Potter and the Second Life**_", was the title if I'm not mistaken)  
Still Not Dead Yet, maybe, maybe not...  
smitty1110, Dumbledore will get what he deserves. In time.

* * *

*** Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "_**Harry Potter**_" and its characters in any shape or form.

"human speech"  
'_human thoughts_'  
"_**spells / parseltongue**_"

* * *

Special thanks to _**NARUHAREM FOREVA**_ for beta-reading this story.

* * *

**chapter 6: Magical stones**

Ronald Weasley surely didn't like the punishment he was given for what he had done to Hermione: two weeks of detentions with Filch and thirty points from Griffindor – unfortunately, negating everything Harry and Neville had earned by defeating the troll – were bad enough, but a letter home professor McGonnagal sent was by far the worst, as it result in him receiving a howler from his very dissatisfied mother on Saturday morning. He wanted to do something to the bushy-haired witch and her new found friends right there and right now for embarrassing him in front of the entire school, but a sharp glare from McGonnagal told him that it wasn't a good idea. So, the red-haired wizard decided to alternate between ignoring the 'golden trio' when around professors and trying to provoke them into starting a fight with insults when not... Not that either Harry, Hermione or Neville cared about what the redhead did as long as he didn't directly attack them...

**~/ *** \~**

In the middle of November, as the first quidditch, the one between Griffindor and Slytherin houses, approached, Wood became even more of the training fanatic than he already was. And so Harry and the rest of the Griffindor quidditch team found themselves on the pitch training their asses off at least trice a week, more if Oliver could reserve the pitch more often...

On Tuesday, November 12, Wood had the team training 'till it was only an hour left before the curfew. Quickly taking shower and changing into his normal clothes, the green-eyed wizard headed back to the Griffindor common room, but when was passing by the corridor on the forth floor, he had heard professors Snape and Quirrell argue about something. For some reason, Harry decided to listen to what that was all about, especially since the DADA professor sounded even more scared than he normally was:

"So no luck there?" The potions master asked.

"N-No. Getting p-past that dog is not s-something we c-can do without alerting the h-headmaster as far as I k-know." Professor Quirrell stuttered.

"The stone is out of your reach till you can figure the dog out then." Snape observed... Not knowing what stone the two professors were talking about, Harry still had figured out that it was both something very valuable, and the very same thing that someone tried to steal from Gringotts during his first visit to Diagon Alley. Deciding that it was not wise to continue eavesdropping, though, the Griffindor seeker hurried towards the common room. The last thing he had heard from the dialogue between two professors was Quirrell agreeing with what the potions master said.

* * *

While Harry couldn't make any conclusions about the situation in the whole as he didn't know what stone the professors were talking about was, but he could still make some speculations about who the 'criminal' here was... As much as he disliked Snape, the green-eyed boy didn't think about him as the main suspect: the man had worked at Hogwarts for years, while professor Quirrell joined the teachers' collection only this year, the year when the stone – whatever it was – was brought to the castle. Plus, the DADA professor was in the Diagon Alley the day when there was an attempted robbery at Gringotts, which made him even more suspicious.

Still, without any solid proof, accusing a professor of being after some artifact was at the very least stupid. Most likely, a political suicide, really. But Harry decided to look into this matter as he needed more information before he could act in any way... And the first thing the young Griffindor needed was information on was the stone: it was something very powerful or very valuable, most likely both, since someone had to break into Gringotts to get to it. And the best way to get information about what the stone could be was to ask one of his friends. But Hermione was unlikely to know much about magical stones and he didn't want the girl to bury herself even deeper into the books. Neville too, most likely, would know only so much as his specialization was Herbology. Thus, only Draconica was left... And his teammates from the quidditch team if the Slytherin girl didn't have the information he needed... Still, he would ask Draconica first. In private, of course...

**~/ *** \~**

Next morning, during the double Defense Against the Dark Arts period, Harry had 'secretly' passed a message to the blond Slytherin, saying that he wanted to talk to her today in the library after the lunch. Draconica didn't write anything back, but had nodded to him, signifying that she would come... After the DADA lessons had finished, the green-eyed wizard quickly went down to the Great hall and ate his lunch, hoping that he would be able to get that secluded table in the library for their ...meeting. The blond witch joined him there rather soon...

"I take it, you have something to say to me, Potter." Draconica stated, not asked, in a cold and indifferent tone, though, despite being in rivaling houses and rarely speaking to each other, they still were a bit closer than that. But they both had an image to keep up.

"Indeed." Harry replied. "I need some information on a particular subject that is not very well covered by the library and felt that you would the best person to ask for it." The blond witch folded her hands in front of her face and looked into his eyes.

"You do understand that you will have to do something for me in return?" She asked. Harry nodded, even though he personally thought that the Slytherin policy of never giving anything without something in return was going a bit too far: altruism should exist in the world too.

"And what exactly do you want in return for sharing some information with me?" He asked her. Draconica replied almost as soon as he finished his question.

"While it is rare for our houses to agree on one subject or another, we both know that professor Quirrell is barely teaching us anything useful. And I know for the fact that you do some self-study for DADA." The Griffindor wizard nodded, though he wasn't sure how his interlocutress knew about that. "I'd like to go over those notes of yours." Then, after a small pause she added: "This one time, of course." Harry nodded again.

"Agreed."

"So what did you want to ask me about?" Draconica asked.

"Some time ago I have overheard some older students taking about magical stones and got interested in the topic." He lied, but even if the Slytherin girl saw through that, she didn't show it. "But the library there has books only about either precious stones used as foci for staffs, or about stones used for warding." This wasn't necessary a lie as those were the book on stones he had found while waiting for Draconica to get to the library. "I have a suspicion that this is not all about magical stones, is it?" The pretty witch nodded.

"Indeed, that's not all, but those two are the most popular uses for stones in magical arts." She said. "Since it's quite clear that you are looking not into the specific uses of this stone or that one, but more into general magical mineralogy, I will say this:.." She made a small pause, before continuing her 'lecture'. "All precious and semiprecious stones can both be used as foci and as storages for the magical energies. At the same time stones like marble or granite are good materials for rune-based magics. Then there is bezoar that, while not a real mineral, is still called a stone. I think it's safe to assume that you remember its properties from Potions." Harry nodded. "Finally there is the Philosopher's or Sorcerer's stone that is said to be a part of the elixir of life and to be able to turn any metal into gold. While its existence isn't exactly confirmed as Nicolas Flamel, its supposed creator, has never shown it to anyone, his and his wife's lives of more than six centuries long are a good evidence that the stone does exist."

"Thanks! That's about what I was asking for." Harry said, while thinking: '_I doubt that it is just an energy container that is kept at the Hogwarts. And while I do not know the exact limitations of runic magic, the idea of something of that kind hidden there too is doubtful as is just a presence of a really big jewel. That means that the most likely stone that is hidden in the castle is the Philosopher's stone..._' "I'll give you my notes at the Astronomy lesson tonight." Draconica nodded.

"See you there then." She replied.

"Have a good evening." The green-eyed wizard told her, while thinking about what to do with the whole 'stone' situation. '_I'm fairly certain that it is the Philosopher's stone out there, but I still need to do some more research, before I can decided what to do about it... On the second thought... It's quite suspicious that Mr. Flamel would give up his stone to have it be kept out here, when it was perfectly safe at his house for the last several centuries... Most likely, the stone at Hogwarts is a fake one, thought it still has to be quite magical, for it has managed to fool the headmaster..._' Harry continued pondering on the subject of the Philosopher's stone as he walked back to Griffindor tower.

**~/ *** \~**

Saturday, November 23 finally came, and the first quidditch match of the season was today, after the lunch. That, of course didn't mean that Oliver Wood would let his team relax in the morning as he had called a team meeting at nine in the morning to discuss the strategy for the match... But, really, was there even one person who was listening to that three hours long briefing, Harry wondered. Most likely, no...

When the lunch came, the green-eyed Griffindor found himself so nervous about the match that he had to force himself to eat something at all. He wasn't the only one with such a problem as it looked like Katie too had troubles with eating her lunch... Finally, the time came and Oliver guided his team to the locker rooms, even some of the team members had barely eaten anything. And then there was another briefing, though, once again, barely anyone listened to Wood...

Ten minutes before two in the afternoon, madam Hooch called the teams to the pitch. Harry barely listened to the third-year Griffindor – Lee – announcing members of the team, and professor McGonnagal scolding him for being prejudiced against Slytherin house. Madam Hooch had the captains of the teams shake their hands – it looked like either one tried to crush the other's hand – before opening the chest that held the balls. She released the two bludgers and then the snitch. Finally, she took the quaffle and, blowing her whistle, threw it up into the air, signifying that the match had started.

Harry, completely concentrated on his task of catching the snitch before the other seeker could do that, paid little attention to what was going down there, other than occasionally hearing Lee's especially loud comments when Griffindor scored... Finally, after what felt to be an eternity, the green-eyed wizard spotted a golden winged ball no larger than a walnut hovering not far away from one of the stands. Knowing exactly what he had to do now, he shot after the snitch... A second later the Slytherin seeker started flying after him: the man – Harry couldn't recall his last name at the moment – was using a strategy based on following the other seeker and not looking for the golden winged ball itself. In this situation the green-eyed boy could lead the opponent away from the snitch and have him crash into something, before claiming the victory by catching the ball... And so the young wizard started flying between and behind the stands, trying to lose the other seeker there, while keeping his eyes on the snitch, which was still zipping around the same stand...

Suddenly Harry lost his control over his – Oliver's – broomstick, as it started moving randomly, trying to throw him off. Concentrating on the task of not falling from the broom, he had to ignore the rest of the world, thus losing the snitch... Thankfully the Slytherin seeker hadn't even seen it at all... Still, the movements of the broom were getting more and more forceful and random... And at one point it succeeded in throwing the young Griffindor off itself, though Harry was still hanging on it with just his left hand still gripping the handle of the broom. Too bad, he didn't have enough strength to hang there for long... Thankfully, the solution to the problem came from the problem itself: the broomstick jerked to the right, ending up really close to one of the support beams of the tribunes, and, using the said beam as a pivot, the young wizard propelled himself back onto the broom...

For another fifteen or so seconds the broomstick continued to thrash around, almost leaving the boy imprinted into another support beam, before it all suddenly stopped and he could control it completely again... Looking around, Harry saw that both teams, as well as madam Hooch, were on the ground in the center of the pitch. So he flew there and landed next to the Griffindor team captain.

"You OK, Harry?" Oliver asked when the green-eyed wizard was finally standing on the solid ground.

"Good of you to finally join us down here." The Weasley twins said together in a mocking voice, though in wasn't hard to hear their concern for their teammate underneath that.

"I'm fine." Harry said. "A bit scared, but OK." Madam Hooch then told him to give her the broom, and, once he did that, she ran a few diagnostics over it.

"Hm..." The witch hummed. "Enhancements are in order... So there was an outside reason for the broom's abnormal behavior." She concluded. She ran the diagnostics again, just in case she had missed something, but the broomstick was in order. "Very well, we will continue the match now, but should the interference happen again, the match will be rescheduled until we can deal with the attacker – we can't have someone interfering with the match by trying to either kill one team's seeker, or by messing with the said seeker's equipment." Both Griffindor and Slytherin teams nodded. "Now back onto your brooms! The match continues." The fourteen players hurried to do just that. One they were all on their brooms and took off the ground, madam Hooch blew into her whistle, signaling the match to continue...

For the next twenty or so minutes Harry circled above the quidditch pitch, looking for the golden snitch, but the damned ball decided to play hide and seek and wasn't showing itself to the Griffindor seeker. And the Slytherin seeker kept following him, hoping to outfly the green-eyed wizard when the golden ball would be finally spotted. Finally Harry grew tired and started doing advanced maneuvers, hoping to shake the other seeker off his tail. It kind of worked as the Slytherin boy was now keeping his distance from him, though he never stopped following Harry's gaze...

A flash of gold near Slytherin loops had revealed the snitch's location, and the green-eyed wizard flew after it with the fastest speed a Cleansweeper six could produce. The Slytherin seeker followed Harry just as fast, but as Harry was closer to the snitch, he had much better chances of catching the ball... Suddenly a bludger appeared, forcing the Griffindor seeker to change his course, and allowing the Slytherin seeker to catch up to Harry a little. The black ball, apparently, picked Harry as its personal target and attempted to hit the young seeker again. But the green-wizard dodged it rather easily. Unlike the Slytherin seeker that happened to be on the same line... With his opponent temporarily out of the competition, it took Harry only some maneuvering around Slytherin's players and dodging some more bludgers to finally catch the golden winged ball, earning Griffindor the first victory in the season with the score of three hundreds and ten against ninety...

* * *

The celebration of the victory in the Griffindor tower lasted well past midnight – till professor McGonnagal decided that her lions were too loud for this hour of night – and Harry, as the one who had brought the victory to them was all but forced to stay up. Not that he minded it very much as the Weasley twins brought a box of butterbeer bottles for everyone and several bottles of firewhiskey for older students, along with some snacks from somewhere...

So, when their head of the house sent her students back to their dormitories, Harry fell onto his bed utterly exhausted, but very content with both himself for winning match and with the celebration that followed it...

**~/ *** \~**

On the Monday morning the next week, reply to the letter Harry had sent to the Archives of the Ministry of Magic came, bringing the green-eyed wizard an answer to the question about his 'official' name. Opening the envelope, he read the letter. It was written in a very dry official language, though it was quite easy to see that the Ministry worker was quite surprised by Harry's inquiry... Skipping straight to where his 'official' name was written, the young Griffindor read:

"Hadrian James Potter..." It was followed by his title as the scion of an ancient house of Potter, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera... Harry smiled to himself, before hiding the letter into his bag, promising himself to dispose it as soon as possible – it wouldn't be good if such information leaked to those who would use it to harm him... That done, the young Griffindor returned to eating his breakfast, while thinking about what to do during the History of Magic lesson.

* * *

That's all, folks!  
The seventh chapter will be published in a week.  
Leave me a **review**.


	7. Christmas and the mirror

Hello, everyone! Here's the newest chapter for the "_**Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord**_" story. Enjoy!

*** Review response**:  
**Darksnider05**, sure. Actually, the only (planned) time when this name will be used is Easter holidays during fourth year. Three guesses why and what happens at that time. =)  
**Siriusly Grim**, about that contract... during second or the beginning of the third year. depending on how the rest of the story will unfold.  
**Highvalour**, Snape is a survivor. He's loyal to only himself, and works for the 'winning' side. Still, he has a little bit of a teacher in him - otherwise the quidditch match could have ended differently for Harry (and the rest of the team)  
**The Sinful**, **Akira Stridder**, **kihakukage**, **Mika the Dark princess**, **Dark Dragen**, **Reishin Amara**, **ChaosLord SilverLink310**, **darkplayer35**, **lordamnesia**, **BioHazard82**, thanks, folks!  
**autumnannette19**, seventh chapter =)  
**Still Not Dead Yet**, Snape saved Harry during the quidditch match by overpowering Quirrell and canceling man's jinx. Though as much would be said when the stuttering professor shows his... parasite's true colors.  
**justbin**, replied you via PM.  
**RE5 forever**, read and see. Not this chapter, though.

* * *

*** Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "_**Harry Potter**_" and its characters in any shape or form.

"human speech"  
'_human thoughts_'  
"_**spells / parseltongue**_"

* * *

This chapter was not beta-read. Yet.

* * *

**chapter 7: Christmas and the mirror**

With December now in its full rights, the weather got worse, thanks to the cold winds and heavy gray clouds that powdered the earth with snow. And with the end of the semester exams approaching, professors were giving more and more homework, which was taking away any free time Harry might have had otherwise...

But once the exams started, the green-eyed wizard found out that most of them were quite easy and he had been worrying in vain. Well, potions were difficult because of professor Snape, who, it looked like, wanted nothing more than make him fail, but Harry managed to get Exceeding Expectations there. The other difficult subject was History of Magic, but he did good there too, despite everything.

Since he had no intentions to return to his relatives for the Christmas holidays, not that he would be welcome there anyway, Harry was staying in the castle. This had earned him – and the Weasley twins, who were staying too – some 'playfully' hateful glares from the chaser trio as Oliver Wood got a bright idea of having day long training sessions during the holidays because of that...

* * *

On the Christmas morning Harry slept in a bit, till almost nine in the morning, but still was the first one to wake up. Since Dursleys never spent a penny on gifts for him, the young wizard wasn't sure whether or not he should expect something this year, but, once he got down to the common room, he found a stack of gifts for him under the Christmas tree.

On the top of the said stack there was a box of chocolate frogs from Hermione – a bit surprising, since her parents were dentists – and a box of some others chocolate candies from Draconica... Accidentally, Harry got her a similar one through Oliver Wood, when the Griffindor quidditch captain went to Hogsmeade the previous week. Neville sent a book that about magical properties of plants that were common for muggles – plants like milfoil or tansy or... Oliver sent gave him a booklet with seekers' advanced moves, what else one could expect from the quidditch fanatic? Harry didn't knew what the twins sent him as their reputation of pranksters made him quite wary of opening the package...

Harry's mind drifted into the thought about whether or not his friends likes the gifts he had sent them. Some sugar-free sweets for Hermione and muggle book about curative plants for Neville – he had bought this book for himself, but decided that his friend would benefit more from it. Twins got some pranksters' sweets from Zonko's – anything else and Harry wasn't sure that the castle would still be there by the end of the holidays... He brought out of his thoughts as the chaser trio descended into the common room. Standing up, the green-eyed wizard turned to face three Griffindor girls.

"Merry Christmas!" He said. Alicia, Angelina and Katie looked at each other and nodded to themselves, before approaching him. Katie move to stand right in front of Harry and, raising onto her toes, hugged the younger boy into her chest, making him blush crimson. Absentmindedly, Harry noticed that she wore nothing underneath her pajama top.

"Merry Christmas, Harry!" She said, before Angelina took her place, and the girl not only hugged the younger wizard into her firm and rather sizable breasts, but also gave his bottom a hard squeeze. Than it was Alicia's turn, and she, giving Harry a foxy grin, felt his 'package' down there too, while, like her two co-chasers did, hugging him into her bosom, making the green-eyed wizard blush an almost impossible shade of red... The chaser trio left shocked Harry to stand in the middle of the room and went to collect their own gifts.

"Hey!" The incredible Weasley twins said from the stairs to the boys' dorms. "What about us, girls?" Alicia put out her tongue, and the girls disappeared towards their dormitories, breaking into giggles. The twins tried to say something to Harry, but he wasn't listening to them at all... Finally, seeing that they weren't getting anything out of the young Potter, Forge and Gred collected their Christmas presents and went back into the dormitories too, no doubt to prank either Ron or Percy...

When Harry finally returned to his senses after the 'gift' the girls 'gave' him, he noticed that he had missed one package that was addressed to him. It was thin and light, and inside there was some sort of a cloak and an anonymous note. The note said:

_You father left it in my care, and I feel that it is time to return it to the rightful owner. Use it wisely._

_**~/ *** \~**  
_

The moment Harry read the note, a small spell beacon went off in the headmaster's office, telling Albus Dumbledore that the invisibility cloak was now in the possession of the Potter scion. Only the oath to Harry's father, James, had this happening – otherwise Albus would have kept it as his own, despite his inability to break the secret of the cloak... Not that he needed it much as he could turn himself invisible with just his wand. But why waste his own magic when he had such a wonderful artifact?

'_I wonder, what you will do with it, Harry._' The Hogwarts headmaster thought, while making plans about what to tell the young Potter about certain magical mirror, when the compulsion charm on the cloak would bring Harry in front of it.

**~/ *** \~**

Harry studied the cloak that was gifted to him. It was very thin and felt like it was made from the air itself, and it felt to be millennia old, while still being in the perfect condition. Deciding to see, what else the cloak could do, the young Griffindor put it on... As he looked at his reflection in the mirror in the corner of the common room, Harry had to force himself to remain quiet: everything that he knew was covered by the cloak seemed to have disappeared!

"Whoa!" The green-haired wizard exclaimed. '_This is an invisibility cloak!_' He had already found some information about those during his studies, but what he already knew about this particular one was contradiction to what he had read in the books. For one, invisibility cloaks were made of demiguise' fur and definitely not of some thin and airy, more so than silk, material. Another thing was the fact that even the best invisibility cloaks lasted for less than half of a century at best, while this one looked like it was made before the King Arthur was born...

Deciding that the cloak would be the most useful – if he ever needed it – if no one knew about it. So Harry folded it and, picking up his Christmas gifts, went to the dormitory to put it into his trunk...

* * *

By the time he went to the Great hall for his evening meal, there appeared a nagging voice in Harry's head that was telling him to try his cloak on again, this time by sneaking around the castle after the curfew. And as the voice was only getting stronger with time, Harry came to a conclusion that it was a product of some magical spell, compulsion, most likely.

Not knowing how to detect compulsions through any magical means, the young Griffindor decided to just try to remove magics from himself and his things. At very least, from the things the charm could have been placed on within last twenty four hours – quite a lot of work, actually, though, it was most likely that the compulsion was placed on the cloak...

As soon as he returned to the dorms, the young wizard took the cloak out of his trunk and, hoping that he won't remove anything other than the compulsion – if it was there in the first place – he pointed his wand at it.

"_**Finite incantem**_!" Surprisingly, the simplest magic canceler – and the only one he knew – worked, and a bluish wisp of magic rose from the cloak. Putting the cloak around his shoulders, the green-eyed Griffindor was relieved to find out that it still made him invisible... Just to be sure that the compulsion was completely removed, he cast _**finite incantem**_ on himself and all of his things that the charm could have been placed on... An hour later Harry was even more relieved that the voice at the back of his head, the one that urged him to do some night exploring of the castle, disappeared. Now free from the charm, the young Griffindor started thinking about who could place it. And the only man who came to his mind was the headmaster: after all the man already had brought the Philosopher's stone into the school full of children for reasons known only to him...

**~/ *** \~**

Albus Dumbledore spent that night sitting disillusioned in the corner of one of the unused classrooms, waiting for Harry to come there and 'accidentally' find the mirror of Erised. Unfortunately, the boy never came. But this was just the first night, and the ancient headmaster assumed that the boy just wandered to other parts of the castle – the compulsion to bring him there wasn't exactly powerful, for otherwise it was too easy to notice even by a first-year student, but it should have eventually brought the boy there...

'_Oh well, maybe he will come tomorrow._' Dumbledore thought as he drank a potion to recover his energy after the sleepless night: as the headmaster he should always appear to be lively and ready to work, to set the example to the Hogwarts students...

* * *

But Harry didn't come in front of the mirror during the next night too, and this was starting to make the headmaster worry that his compulsion failed. He needed the boy to find the mirror: after all how will he save the stone if he didn't know anything about the object it would be placed into? Why even Harry Potter? Dumbledore, unfortunately for himself, wasn't sure that the scion of house Potter was the prophesied one. But Neville Longbottom so far seemed to be a less likely candidate for that role...

After the young Potter didn't show up on the third night after he was given the cloak, the headmaster finally decided to check on the boy, discreetly of course. The old man was quite surprised when he found only minute signs that the boy even was under the charm in the first place. The boy must have had detected the compulsion on the cloak and dispelled it somehow. This was a little worrisome, but a more subtle compulsion should be able to do the job just fine, Dumbledore thought as he discreetly cast another charm at Harry during the lunch. This one would take a couple of days to affect the boy, so he could finally sleep tonight...

**~/ *** \~**

On December thirtieth, while doing his homework for Potions sometime before the dinner, Harry found himself in a need of going to the library to check information on some ingredients in the 'bigger' books. So, taking his trunk with him, the young Griffindor headed to the library... Unfortunately, having had interrupted his studies for the dinner, the green-haired wizard was unable to finish his essay before madam Pince closed the library. Closed it till the second January...

With his homework almost done, Harry, though, thought that it was unreasonable to postpone finishing it for a couple of days. But without an access to the books he needed – madam Pince didn't allow him to take them out – he just couldn't do that... Or could he? A thought of using the invisibility cloak to sneak into the library and finish the essay occurred to the Potter scion. Deciding that it wasn't a very bad idea, he did just that...

As he was absorbed by his work, Harry didn't notice that he had spent several hours in the library, and it was now well past curfew. The green-eyed Griffindor was about to leave, and had already hid himself under the cloak, when professor Snape, who was patrolling this part of the castle tonight, entered the library. Moving as silently as he could to remain undetected by the potions master, Harry walked out of the room.

His luck was still on a vacation, it seemed, as the way back to the Griffindor tower was patrolled by Filch and his cat, and the young wizard wasn't sure that he could walk past them undetected. As neither of the two seemed to be in any hurry to relocate to some other part of the castle... So Harry had to kill some time somewhere, before trying to return to the dormitories again, hoping that at that time the path would be clear. Without really thinking, he started wandering through the night castle, his legs carrying him through the dark corridors seemingly on their own...

Soon, Harry found himself in an unused classroom – the dark shapes of desks and chairs piled against the walls indicated what the room was used for in the past. But there was one other thing in the room, the thing that didn't really fit there: a magnificent mirror, as high as the ceiling, with an ornate gold frame, standing on two clawed feet and an inscription carved around the top: "_Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi_" The carving didn't seem to be made in any known human language, but after looking closely, Harry noticed that it actually was English, just with misplaced spaces and actual words written backwards.

"I show not ...your face, but your he- ...heart's desire." The young Griffindor read the carved text in a low whisper... For some reason he felt really curious about his 'heart's desire'. So he stepped in front of it. What he in the reflection almost made him yelp in shock.

The 'mirrored' him looked to be older, about eighteen, and had a young woman in his arms. She was in the shadow, so the young wizard couldn't say who she was, but he could swear that she had blond hair... Behind the pair, stood two adults: a pretty red-haired woman with bright green eyes – just like his – and a tall, thin man that, was it not for his hazel eyes, could be mistaken for an even older Harry... Then the two adults waved to him, while the mysterious girl snuggled into his reflection's chest.

"Mom... Dad..." Harry whispered, understanding, who the adults were. Well, he was never shown any pictures or photos of them, but from what Hagrid and the Hogwarts professors said about them, he had little problem with recognizing them...

When Harry looked back into the mirror, there were more people there. A couple that looked to be around their sixties stood behind his parents – his grandparents on the Potter side, most likely, as the man looked to be like his father without glasses and with slightly graying hair. Next to them there was another couple that looked to be roughly of the same age – they mush have been his mother's parents: rather tall man with dark-brown, though, too, graying hair, and a pretty woman with reddish hair... Older Neville, Hermione, the chaser trio, professors McGonnagal and Flitwick, Hagrid were there too... There were more people in the reflection, but like the girl in 'mirrored' Harry's arms, their bodies were hidden by shadows...

"Family and friends..." The young wizard whispered. "That's what my heart desires most." Suddenly, there was a sound of someone sitting down onto a desk. Whirling around, Harry saw the headmaster sitting there in the corner of the classroom. At least, the old man didn't look to be angry at him.

"So, you have discovered the wonders of the Mirror of Erised." The ancient man said as he slipped onto the floor and started approaching the young Griffindor.

"S-Sir... I haven't noticed you." Harry said, still a bit afraid that the old man will punish him for being out of the tower after the curfew.

"Strange how nearsighted being invisible can make you." Dumbledore said with a smile. "And you got it correctly, the mirror shows us nothing more and nothing less than our hearts' deepest and most desperate desire. You, having never know your family, see them in the mirror, and while they are no longer with us, they are still within your heart. As for a family of your own, this is a dream that you can make come true." The headmaster said. "However, this mirror gives neither knowledge nor truth, and I would thank you if you will not look for it again. After all, many men had wasted their lives in front of it, and I wouldn't want my student to be one of them." Harry nodded. "Good. Now, why don't you put that admirable cloak back on and get off to bed?" The old wizard said while thinking: '_I'm relieved that his desire is family and friends.__The world wouldn't survive were he anything like Tom Riddle was._'

**~/ *** \~**

Only when Harry was back in his bed, he thought that it was strange that he had wandered so far away from the dormitories, when he found the mirror. Thinking that it could be an effect of another compulsion, most likely the one that was placed on him, and not his things, the green-eyed wizard cast a magic canceler at himself. There was a wisp of magic raising from his body...

"That old... !" Harry swore as he understood that the whole mirror thing was orchestrated by the headmaster... It would be a long time before he would be able to fully trust the old man again...

* * *

That's all, folks!  
The eighth chapter will be published in a week.  
Leave me a **review**.


	8. Here comes the Dragon

Hello, everyone! Here's the newest chapter for the "_**Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord**_" story. Enjoy!

*** Review response**:  
**The Sinful**, no, you haven't missed anything. But even in canon they are teases (not this much, of course), so I don't think that their behavior here was too OOC. Plus since Harry actually won his place on the team, his relationship with the chasers should be a little better too.  
**justbin**, professor McGonnagal is kind of personification of equality and rightfulness for Harry, while Flitwick 'represents' joys of learning and other positive sides of schooling. Thus for Harry they are 'anchors' to the school and the magical world. Why wouldn't he want them in his 'fantasy', especially since the mirror builds image based on desires of heart, and not exactly on the reality around the one, who looks into it... As for the chapters - here I update weekly and not bi-monthly, plus these chapters are just about 25% smaller that in other stories...  
**Dark Dragen**, **ChaosLord SilverLink310**, **Reishin Amara**, **Doldemort is Vead**, **000oo000**, **BioHazard82**, **Hanzo of the Salamander**, **mitremlap**, thank you, folks!  
**Tutenstein**, that last phrase could also mean 'more than a lifetime', so it depends on how you interpret it... And yes, Harry is eleven, thus a bit of an idiot, but he didn't know Dumbledore was there, when he said his heart's desire aloud... And Dumbledore just always believes in good in people (well, that bad guys can be reformed), so, yeah, he IS an idiot.  
**First Lady Lestat**, sorry, Draconica's time will be a little later.  
**Victorules**, Dumbledore isn't giving up on Neville yet, he just made Harry the primary candidate (for now) into the role of the chosen one... And Harry/Draconica relationship will start somewhere between years two and three. Right now they are a bit too young.  
**xavierp**, since in this story Harry isn't as naive as in canon, he isn't (mentally) stunned as much. But, yeah, that blond in the reflection of the mirror was more like a 'life partner' than a 'wife' to him. Still those two a quite close and can easy change into one another.  
**Still Not Dead Yet**, 'Deathstick' is just a powerful wand (not an 'ultimately' powerful too). Plus subtle usually means not very powerful (unless modifications are small or do not force someone too much out of their character), so _**finite incantem**_ should be enough to end those compulsions. As for the compulsion used in this chapter, it just 'forces' to send the 'correct' reply and ignore magical changes to the letter. The text itself was changed.  
**ShadowAngelBeta**, Harry and Draconica will start interacting more during the second year, but their relationship will stop being 'just associates' only in the third year.

* * *

*** Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "_**Harry Potter**_" and its characters in any shape or form.

"human speech"  
'_human thoughts_'  
"_**spells / parseltongue**_"

* * *

This chapter was not beta-read. Yet.  
Also, this is mostly a filler chapter.

And finally, I uploaded a picture of (older) Draconica on deviantArt. The link is in my profile.

* * *

**chapter 8: Here comes the Dragon**

Surprisingly enough, the next months of the school year were quiet and pretty much eventless. The subjects they were taught became a bit more difficult than they were in the previous semester, but working together with Hermione and Neville, Harry had little problem with them. Occasional – and mostly silent – help from Draconica did factor there too...

The quidditch match of the Griffindor team against the Hufflepuff one too went good. Other than professor Snape being the referee, there wasn't anything outstanding about the game – no brooms going out of control or anything like that. The house of red and gold won the game, but, no offense to Hufflepuffs, the only player they had that was a challenge for the Griffindor team was their seeker Cedric Diggory...

But this period of calmness allowed Harry to think a lot about the Philosopher's stone and why it was at Hogwarts. He didn't the conclusions he came to... It looked like the stone – the fake one as there was no way in the hell Nicolas Flamel would give the real one away – was there as some kind of a lure. After hours upon hours spent on pondering who the headmaster hoped to lure with the stone being in the castle, the green-eyed wizard decided the it was there to lure someone possessed by the spirit of lord Voldemort. But there was one more thing: Dumbledore all but announced where to look for the stone at the opening feast. It was almost like he wanted a student to go and save the stone, or something... And thinking about why the whole thing happened in this particular school year, the young Potter came to a conclusion that Dumbledore wanted him to save the stone.

Then it occurred to Harry that Neville's fate so far was very similar to his own: parents being a major thorn at the dark lord's side, being attacked at fifteen month of age and losing both parents – though, Neville's were only in some kind of magical coma as the scion of house Longbottom never talked about them as if they were dead... Neville, while being well cared for, still wasn't very loved by his family in his early years as he was thought to be a squib. And they were born within twenty four hours at the end of July nineteen eighty... So there was a small chance that Dumbledore had decided that it was Neville's role to 'save' the stone from the spirit of Voldemort.

With this in mind, Harry let the young Longbottom on to what was happening at Hogwarts this year. And Hermione too, as the girl would find this out anyway... Much like him, they weren't happy with what this all meant, and, while Hermione could do nothing about this, being a muggleborn and all, Neville promised to contact his Grandmother, who was on the school's board of governors, and ask her to do something about this. Harry also decided to try to contact Nicolas Flamel himself, but it was more likely than not that the old alchemist would be inaccessible...

**~/ *** \~**

Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore was very thankful that he had installed a ward that scanned all outgoing letters for a specific a word combinations – "Sorcerer's stone" or "Philosopher's stone" in this case – the last summer. No, he was pleased that both boys that could be the chosen one solved the mystery about what was hidden on the third floor – the world didn't need dumb heroes – but the fact that neither Harry nor Neville wanted to play by his rules wasn't to his liking: they, well, either of them, were supposed to save the stone on their own, not ask higher-ups to solve the situation.

Changing Harry's letter to master Flamel didn't require a lot – the wards around Nicolas' house were very powerful and kept unwanted incoming mail away. As such, all that Dumbledore needed to do, was to make sure that the letter was marked as an unwanted one by Flamel's wards – an easy task...

Modifying Neville's letter was much harder, as it needed to reach the addressee. Thus, the headmaster had to change what the boy was asking his grandmother to do: instead of bringing the subject of the stone up on the upcoming meeting of the board of governors, it now was buying some more fertilizers for Longbottom greenhouses. And a strong, but subtle compulsion to ensure that Augusta will send the right response to her grandson... Thanks God, she was laconical in her speeches, verbal or written.

When he was finally done with modifying the letters, Dumbledore sealed them back into the envelopes, erasing any detectable signs of him doing anything to the mail, before sending the owls on their ways... The ancient man felt a little bad about what he had done: tampering with others mail was a crime after all. Unless it was done for the Greater Good, of course. Content with his actions being justified, Dumbledore popped a lemon drop into his mouth and started going over the balance sheet for the last calendar year that needed to be presented to the board of governors...

**~/ *** \~**

After Neville got a reply from his grandmother, saying that 'she will do this', the Griffindor trio relaxed a little, thinking that the situation with the stone will be taken care of, and, upon Hermione's urging, started preparing for the exams, even if they were still quite a time away. Thus, the trio of Griffindor could be found at the library quite often these days as they studies tomes on various aspects of magic they had to know to pass the end of year tests.

From time to time their little study group was joined by Draconica, who often provided her own insight into the 'topic of the day' of her Griffindor yearmates, while always listening to what they had to say on this... At first Hermione was against letting a Slytherin join their study group, but since ms. Malfoy was a scholar and was tolerating enough towards the muggleborns, even if she wasn't knowledgeable about muggle world... and because Harry had personally vouched for her, the bushy-haired girl allowed Draconica to become the fourth, unofficial, member of their study group.

Today was twentieth March, and the Griffindor trio, following the study schedule Hermione drew up for them, was working on their transfiguration – Draconica had a study session with her housemates in the dungeons tonight – when Hedwig finally returned after almost two weeks of absence that followed her being sent to deliver Harry's letter to Nicolas Flamel. The letter was unopened and still tied to the white owl's leg. Not that this was unexpected, but Harry still was a little disappointed that he couldn't contact the alchemist about what was done with his 'stone'... Giving tired Hedwig some owl treats and letting her to return to the owlry to rest, the green-eyed wizard was ready to return to his transfiguration book, when he noticed Hagrid with some books in his hands exiting the restricted section of the library.

"You noticed, Hagrid's taking some books again." The scion of house Potter said. It was true, they have seen the giant man taking books yesterday and the day before that.

"We're at school, Harry." Hermione 'reminded' him. "Just because he's a gatekeeper, it doesn't mean that he has to stop studying – self-improvement and all. Plus I have heard that he wants to take the position of Care for Magical Creatures professor, when the current one retires. Of course he will be reading books." Neville nodded, most likely to stay on Hermione's good side, though.

"That's not what I mean." The green-eyed wizard replied. "Have you seen the titles of the books you Hagrid is reading? They are all about dragons."

"Well, dragon are very interesting creatures." Neville said. "And they provide materials and the likes for many things wizards make." Harry nodded: that was all very true, especially since his own wand had a heartstring from a dragon for a core.

"Yeah, but a couple of those books were about breeding dragons." He pointed out. This got the attention of his study partners.

"Dragon breeding is illegal in Britain!" The young Longbottom exclaimed. "And those wild species we have running around, ministry tries to catch and ship them off to the dragon reserves... The closest I know is in Romania... One of Ron's older brothers works there, Charlie was his name, I think. There was another reserve in Ural mountains, but they had some troubles with muggle government and I'm not sure what happened to it..."

"Then why would Hagrid be reading a book on dragon breeding?" Hermione asked. "You don't think he got an egg from somewhere, do you?"

"Like you can meet a mysterious stranger with a dragon in his pocket drinking in a bar at Hogsmeade." Neville said. "I think, you have better chances at seeing professor Snape laugh like a horse at a random joke than that." The trio shared a quiet laugh at the joke.

"Still, don't you thing we should go see what Hagrid is up to if he's reading such books?" Hermione said then. Harry nodded, not wanting to his first friend from the magical world do something bad. And wanting to get out of the library and the castle, since the weather was getting quite warm and sunny outdoors. It was several more seconds before Neville nodded, as the young Longbottom was finishing writing a sentence down onto his parchment.

* * *

It took the Griffindor trio some time to make it to Hogwarts entrance and then to the hut where the gigantic man lived. Harry then knocked on the door, which was immediately answered by a loud barking of a boarhound named Fang that lived with Hagrid.

"Who's there?" The man himself asked from within the hut. "Fang, quiet!" Cracking the door open a little bit, the half-giant peeked outside, and smiled when he saw the trio. "Oh, it's you lot. Come in!" He said, opening the door completely. "Some tea, cakes?" Harry, Neville and Hermione filed into the hut, finding that it was heated very much. Too much, actually, as it felt like they were in the middle of Sahara now.

"Some tea, no cakes." The three Griffindors chorused: by now they knew well that Hagrid's cookery was edible only for Hagrid himself. Harry looked around the hut, trying to find a reason why it was kept so damn heated there. Finally he spotted a pot sitting directly above the flames of the stove, with a large bluish egg in it.

"Hey, Hagrid, what is it?" The green-eyed wizard asked, pointing at the egg.

"Where? There is nothing there!" The half-giant exclaimed, trying to place himself between his guests and the stove. Unfortunately, the trio had already seen the egg, so that action only caused them to shake their heads. Hagrid sighed and gave up. "Okay... I won it. A couple of nights ago I was at the 'og's 'ead for a few drinks an' got into into a game o' cards with a stranger. I think, 'e was glad to get rid of it." Harry and Hermione looked at Neville, who just shrugged, while smiling sheepishly.

"...And what are you gonna do with it?" The young Potter asked, while he and his two friends got comfortable on Hagrid's bed that was right next to the table and, thus, was used as a sofa when the man had guests.

"I 'ave been readin' books... you know, 'Dragon Breeding for Pleasure and Profit' and the likes... 'Is egg is from Norwegian Ridgeback..." And then Hagrid went on about what to do to have the dragon hatch and how to care for it when that happens.

"Hagrid, but you are living in a wooden hut! I don't think, it's a good idea to keep a fire-breathing dragon there." Hermione said, trying to be as diplomatic as possible. But the half-giant didn't listen to her. The trio tried to tell the gatekeeper that breeding dragons was illegal, but he still didn't listen. In the end, Hermione finally came with a compromise: Hagrid were to have the egg till it hatches, and the young dragon recognizes him as its 'mother' and then it'd be shipped off to some dragon reserve, Romanian one most likely, as it would need a company of other dragons, something the half-giant couldn't provide... Hagrid had reluctantly agreed with this. Now, the trio needed to contact the dragon reserve somehow and tell them they had a young dragon for them to pick up...

**~/ *** \~**

Since Harry's relationship with Ron was strained at best and hostile at worst, the boy definitely was not the one to ask for help, when the green-eyed wizard found himself in a need of contacting Charlie Weasley, who was a dragon keeper in Romanian reserve. Percy was a no too, but because the Griffindor prefect was even bigger sticker to the rules than Hermione was during the first weeks of Hogwarts: he would just report Hagrid to the authorities – not something the trio wanted to happen. That left Harry with the only other way: he had to go to the infamous Weasley twins for help.

Finding the twins , when they weren't in the Griffindor tower or at the quidditch training – Oliver Wood for some reason had canceled the training that Saturday – was a really really hard task. In the end, Harry managed to catch the illusive prankster twins after the dinner on Saturday night.

"Hello, Harrikins... What do you need from our humble selves?" Gred and Forge asked in perfect sync as soon as the young Potter brought them to a nook of the corridor leading to the kitchens – a place where there wouldn't be overheard.

"I need some help from you, guys." Harry replied. The twins grinned.

"Who do we have to prank?.." One of them asked. Then the other twin continued.

"...Or is it that you want us to give you an advice on how to get into the heart of a beautiful young lady?" The green-eyed wizard blushed a little, but shook his head.

"No, it's something serious I need your help with." Gred and Forge dropped their grins.

"What is it?" The asked, once again in a perfect sync.

"One of your older brothers works in a dragon reserve, right?" The twins nodded. "Well, can you ask him to relieve us from a fire-breathing problem. It should be hatching in about one month." Gred and Forge looked at each other.

"Well, Charlie said that he will be visiting our home at the end of April, while several of his coworkers will be at London." Fred, or was it George, said. Then the other twin continued.

"He said they were heading back to Romania on twenty eighth. We will write to Charlie about this little problem you have there, and, hopefully, they will be able to make a detour here to pick this dragon up... What is it, by the way?"

"Hagrid said that it is Norwegian Ridgeback... But one can't be completely sure till it hatches, I think." The Weasley twins nodded.

"Quite a nasty dragon you have there, Harrikins, according to our Charlie." Gred said. Then Forge continued.

"But don't worry. We will ask our brother to relieve you of this little fire-breathing problem."

"Thanks, guys!" Harry said, before allowing the twins to return to planning their next prank, while he himself went to find Hermione and Neville to tell them that he had asked the twins to contact their dragon minder brother...

**~/ *** \~**

Charlie Weasley, actually, replied quite quickly, and just a week after his talk with the twins, Harry had a letter from the dragon minder with the information about where and when to meet him and his team to give them the baby dragon, along with the detailed instructions on how to prepare it for the upcoming transfer to Romanian reserve.

Harry had passed these instructions to Hagrid, who, while crying as he will have to say goodbye to a dragon that hasn't actually hatched yet, went ahead and started preparing a transportation box. While the half-giant was working in the back yard of his hut, the Griffindor trio, upon his request, were watching the egg in the hut... Why, who knows, as there was quite some time before it would start hatching...

March ended and April started, bringing even nicer weather... and even more homework with it. Harry, Neville and Hermione still spent their free time between the library, where they were getting ready for the exams, and Hagrid's hut, as they were watching the egg... On April nineteen, during lunch, the half-giant sent them a message, telling that the dragon will hatch soon, and they were welcome to be there when it happens.

The dragon, when it hatched, was actually quite small, about twenty inches long with the tail, and had a wingspan of roughly three feet, and was a girl – lack of certain marks made that clear. And the dragon indeed thought that Hagrid was her mommy... and blew a small stream of fire at gigantic man's beard...

The next nine days were quite tiring, as the trio and Hagrid tried to keep the growing dragon hidden... On the evening of April twenty eighth, Hagrid had Norberta – he called the dragonett like that – go asleep thanks to special food and a potion and placed her into the transportation box. With was then placed under Harry's invisibility cloak and levitated by trio to the Astronomy tower, where Charlie and his team picked Norberta up at midnight... When the Griffindor trio was returning to the dorms, they almost ran into professor McGonnagal, but, thankfully, she didn't notice that...

* * *

That's all, folks!  
The ninth chapter will be published in a week.  
Leave me a **review**.


	9. Jumping into the unknown

Hello, everyone! Here's the newest chapter for the "_**Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord**_" story. Enjoy!

*** Review response**:  
**Highvalour**, don't be so sure about that, my friend. There are always things that can make wrong turn right...  
**Still Not Dead Yet**, **ChaosLord SilverLink310**, **Dark Dragen**, **Loiosh311**, **Hanzo of the Salamander**, thanks, folks!  
**sarah-rose76646**, thank you for being straight, yet polite, like you were. Unfortunately review replies aren't working and I couldn't reply you directly (you might not read it here...). Hopefully, I will be able to change your opinion with the later chapters, but oh well... And thanks for you wishing me luck.  
**The Sinful**, who wouldn't?  
**justbin**, sorry, but like I said, that was a filler chapter... This one is an 'action' one, so you should find it more to your tastes.  
**harlequin320**, canon will be more or less abandoned after the second year (I have a couple of twists in mind that I haven't seen before... or I just missed the stories where they were used).  
**Vukk**, *evil laughter* coughs - OK, I have something planned for this, but, alas, I'm not giving you any spoilers.

* * *

*** Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "_**Harry Potter**_" and its characters in any shape or form.

"human speech"  
'_human thoughts_'  
"_**spells / parseltongue**_"

* * *

This chapter was not beta-read. Yet.

* * *

**chapter 9: Jumping into the unknown**

May came, and so did the last quidditch game of the season: Griffindor versus Ravenclaw... The match was long and hard, and not exactly during the fine weather too, but in the end Harry managed to catch the snitch before the other seeker dd it, thus bringing the third victory in the season to the Griffindor team.

And with three victories and a lot of points, the house of lions wont the quidditch cup. For the first time in several years, which put their head of the house, professor McGonnagal into a very good mood... Unfortunately, the house that lost the cup was Slytherin, and professor Snape didn't hesitate a second on being extra mean to anyone who didn't wear silver and green during his potion lessons, which quickly brought to nought the hundred points Griffindor was awarded for winning the quidditch cup...

The second week of May marked the beginning of the end of year exams. Harry was sure the he and his friends, including Draconica, were more than ready for them, and he wasn't wrong there: the exams weren't hard at all... Well, Potions and History of Magic were for the green-eyed wizard, but that had more to do with the professors than with the subjects...

On the Monday of the last week of May, the results were announced. Unsurprisingly – and mush to the dismay of Ravenclaws – Hermione was ranked first among the first year students. Draconica was fifth, while Harry and Neville shared eleventh place. Not bad...

**~/ *** \~**

With only so many days left from the school year, a certain dark spirit that parasitezed on the back of Quinius Quirrell's head was using everything it could to have its host get a certain stone. And while the defenses that he headmaster erected around the stone were easy to bypass, the stone itself was hidden within a powerful magical object the spirit didn't knew how to deal with. It knew that the Philosopher's stone was hidden inside the Mirror of Erised, but it didn't know what it – or its host – needed to do in order to get it, and destroying the mirror was out of question as it could destroy the stone too...

"We need to find some help..." The dark spirit hissed. "Potter would be perfect, as his demise at my hand would be a good way of announcing to the world that I'm back." Quirrell nodded.

"I agree, master, but Potter doesn't seem to be stupid enough to just come here. We need to do something to have him go down there." The DADA professor replied. The dark spirit was silent for several seconds.

"He is hanging out with that mudblood. If we capture her, Potter will come here to save her, and we will capture him. And killing not only Potter but a mudblood too will be even better." It hissed to its host.

"I take it, you want the girl to be alive until you are done with Potter?" Quirrell asked. After the parasite hissed a positive reply, the man started waving his wand in an intricate pattern, and several seconds later stone floor in front of him started shifting and a humanoid figure of about three meters tall rose from the stone floor... By the time the creation of the golem was complete, the young professor was breathing heavily – creating a golem took a lot of energy, and enhancing it to move silently wasn't easy either...

Not wanting to waste his master's time, Quirrell drank a potion to restore some of his energy and guided the golem through the various traps set to protect the stone to the corridor of the third floor. From there the animated piece of stone would have to work on its own... Hopefully, it would do everything like it was told to...

**~/ *** \~**

Hermione was walking back to the Griffindor tower after doing some more studying in the library – "Why, the school year has ended, you should relax a little too" Neville had said to her – when she felt ...something approaching her from behind, something that wasn't friendly. Turning around, the young witch saw a very large stone 'statue' approaching her. Instinctively letting out a loud scream, Hermione started sending the most powerful hexes and jinxes she knew at the golem, while trying to run away from it, but the animated statue was both quite fast and seemed to be impervious to the magics of this level...

Trying to run and 'fight' simultaneously too, proved to be not the best idea, as the bushy-hared witch had made a wrong turn somewhere and ended in an unused classroom instead of the safety of the Griffindor common room... Hermione put up a really good magical fight for a first year student, but with none of her spells even scratching the stone golem, she was quickly pushed into the corner and knocked out by golem's punch...

Picking the unconscious girl up, the animated statue started walking back to the right-hand part of the corridor on the third floor where it's creator was waiting for it to return.

**~/ *** \~**

As Harry and Neville hadn't seen their friend since lunch, and she didn't appear at the dinner, the two of them naturally got worried about her. As much as Hermione liked studying, she never missed her meals without a really good reason... Speaking of people who were absent at the dinner... The headmaster too wasn't there, which was quite unusual – no Wizengamot sessions lasted this long, plus there wasn't one today anyway... ICW too didn't hold any meetings during this week... Oh well, maybe the ancient man felt like having a quiet meal at his office? Professor Quirrell wasn't there, but that was hardly unusual in the last month or so, and professor McGonnagal was currently very busy as the deputy headmistress and just didn't have time to dine in the Great hall...

Suddenly, one of the school owls flew into one of the special windows of the Great Hall and landed in front of the two Griffindor boys... Receiving mail this late was unusual, but it happened sometimes, so the boys took the note that was attached to the bird's leg. Opening the note, the two boys saw the message written in rather big and irregular letters in some dark-maroon ink:

_Potter, if you want your friend back alive, go to the right-hand corridor on the third floor and you will find her at its end. I'll be waiting._

Harry and Neville looked at each other, trying to decide whether the author of this note was serious or just wanted to get the green-eyed boy into a trouble. Harry looked back at the text and studied it more carefully. The ink it was written with was strange and it looked like...

"Blood." He whispered, catching Neville's attention. "It is written in blood. Most likely someone made a small cut on a finger and used it to write the note... And I'm afraid, this blood is Hermione's." Neville looked now both really worried for his friend and a bit sick from what the message was apparently written in.

"We need to tell professor McGonnagal about it. Now." Harry nodded, and the two friends raced out of the Great Hall, heading straight to their head of the house's office. Thankfully, the professor was there, going over some of her paperwork...

"Mr. Potter, Mr. Longbottom, I do hope that you have a good reason for diverting me from my duties right now. I'd hate to take points from my house this late in the school year." Apparently, the transfiguration professor wasn't having a good day.

"Here." Instead of replying verbally, Harry just gave her the note. Her frown as she read the short message told the boys that their reason for disturbing the deputy headmistress was good enough.

"I see..." Professor McGonnagal said finally. "I know that this looks bad, but I think that it is just someone trying to get you into trouble, Mr. Potter. But just in case someone had really done what he claims, I will ask the castle's portraits and house elves to look for Ms. Granger. If they can't find her within an hour, I will have professors and prefects go get her. In any case, the one who did this will be punished most severely." While Harry and Neville didn't show this on the outside, they weren't really happy with what their head of the house said. So as soon as they were out of her office, Neville said that themselves will go save Hermione. And the scion of house Longbottom also insisted that they both go there, stating that not only the bushy-haired witch was his friend too, but also that he won't leave his friend to face whatever was there in the corridor alone.

* * *

Two boys ran up to the Griffindor tower and collected Harry's invisibility cloak there – who knows, they might need it! - before racing down to the third floor and to the forbidden corridor. They stopped in front of the door there to catch their breath before going further, into the unknown.

"Shall we, mate?" Neville asked. Harry just nodded, and the two of them pointed their wands at the door's lock. "I hope, this works." The pudgy boy said, before they simultaneously cast the _**alohomora**_ charm on it. The was a clicking sound, and the door creaked open. Now the boys could hear three loud snoring sounds and some tune played by a charmed lyre. Peeking inside, Harry saw a Cerberus – Hagrid's Fluffy – sleeping next to the lyre that was playing on its own, and an opened trapdoor. Opening the door wider, he and Neville slipped in.

"I think, we should go down through this trapdoor..." Then the green-eyed wizard looked down into it. "Unfortunately, it's quite dark there and I can't see the bottom."

"You can throw the stone..." Thankfully, there was a couple on the floor next to the trapdoor. "And listen, when it hits the floor down there." Harry nodded and did just that. The duo listened for any the sound of the stone hitting the floor, but even after thirty seconds there was none.

"It's either really deep, or there is something soft down there... Let's hope, it's the second." The green-eyed wizard said, as he readied himself for a jump. "This must be the stupidest thing I did in my life." Harry said, before jumping... He was falling for several seconds, before landing on something soft, yet wet and slippery... Like tentacles of a giant octopus... Looking up, Harry saw that the trapdoor's hole looked to be really small from down here. "You can jump down!" Harry shouted. Neville, apparently, had heard him, as several seconds later the green-eyed wizard heard an approaching screaming of his falling friend.

"I hope, I don't have to do this ever again." The pudgy boy said after he had recovered from the fall. "By the way, Harry, do you know that we're sitting on the Devil's snare?" Looking down, the green-eyed wizard saw that, indeed, the tentacles they were sitting on belonged to the said plant, and it had already wrapped around his both legs without him even noticing it.

"Oh, damn! I knew this couldn't be that easy. _**Lumos solem!**_" Thanks to all of the studying session Hermione made them complete, Harry knew that the Devil's snare didn't like heat and light, and faced with a source of bright light, the plant retreated into the dark corner of the chamber, making the two boys fall down onto the rough floor of a chamber underneath this one...

It took Harry and Neville more than a minute to get ready to continue forward, through the only door available to them. As they came closer to the door, they could hear sounds of multiple ...bird? flying there, as well as some booming of an unknown machinery or something like that... Opening the door, the two boys were blinded for a moment with how bright it was there...

The room itself was a vast rectangular chamber with two doors opposite to each other. In front of each door there was a small balcony without rails, and there balconies were connected by a very narrow 'bridge'. The floor of the chamber was covered with ominous spikes that would definitely kill anyone who was unlucky to fall onto them. There also was about a hundred of polished marble cubes in the room, on the either side of the 'bridge'. These cubes were moving in different patterns, but mostly up and down, while producing those booming sounds the boys had heard. Finally, just below the ceiling there was a flock of ...winged keys? that zipped around.

"And what do we have to do here?" Neville asked as he threw a small stone down. It fell between the spikes, revealing that there was no transparent panels over them.

"Hm... If I were to guess, we have to catch the right key without falling onto the spikes and cross this bridge... But I think it won't be that easy." Harry replied. "But then again, to get the right key, we need to know what we need, so crossing the room is in order." Crossing the bridge wasn't easy, even if it was still and straight. Neville even had to crawl as he still had his acrophobia and couldn't stand over the spiked abyss without fear taking over him... Finally, the duo crossed the bridge and were standing in front of the exit from this chamber.

"It looks like we will need a large silver key. Possibly with an ornate handle." The scion of the house Longbottom said as he examined the lock. Harry nodded and started locating the key in the flock... He was lucky as the key was pretty much like what Neville said it should look like, and it also had a broken wing, which made it slower and less maneuverable.

"Wish me luck." The green-eyed wizard said as he jumped onto the lowering marble cube. It appeared to be much more slippery than its polished top looked to be, and Harry was quite sure that the cube had some charms on it for that purpose. Thankfully he managed not to fall down, though it still was a close call. After he had recovered from his first jump, Harry waited till the block was as high as it could go, before jumping onto the block that was moving horizontally across the chamber. And from that one he had jumped onto the one that was moving along the chamber. Now all he had to do was waiting for the right moment to catch the winged key... Finally, a little more than a minute later, the young Potter was in the right position. Jumping up from the block, he caught the key. And the rest of the flock instantly stopped and turned towards him. Sensing that something bad was about to happen, Harry started jumping towards the balcony where Neville stood, while angry keys tried to turn him into a pincushion... Unfortunately, as Harry was doing the last jump, he slipped a little and missed the balcony. Feeling that he was falling towards his death, Harry threw the key he had caught to Neville, who managed to catch it before the thing could recover and fly away... The green-eyed wizard prepared himself for the pain that will mark the end of his short life, but it never came as he hit some magical field about an inch above the spikes and bounced up, landing face first onto the balcony a couple of seconds later.

"You OK, mate?" Neville asked as he dragged Harry through the door, before the keys made another attempt of killing them.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Let's go." And they continued forward... The next obstacle on their was was in the form of a giant chess board with human-sized figures. It was supposed that they would have to win the game to continue to the next room, but since the figures couldn't leave the squares of the board, the boys just used the edge of the board to slip past the obstacle.

The next room greeted the two first years with a terrible stench that could only belong to a troll who had spent a lot of time in a closed space. Thankfully, the troll in the room – and it was bigger than the one they had faced on Halloween – was dead. Going past the dead beast, two boys reached the next room.

Unlike the previous ones, it was circular and rather small. Right in the center of the room there was a table with seven vials of various sizes with some liquids, an opened scroll and a key. As soon as they picked the key from the table, they found themselves trapped as some liquids formed walls in front of the doors out of the room – one of the walls, the one that blocked the door back to the troll room, was of some clear liquid, while the other one was formed by a yellowish liquid.

"These are contact poisons." Neville said as he studied the walls of liquids. "I bet some of these vials have protection against them." Indeed, the riddle that was written in the scroll told that one of the vials had a potion that will protect from the poison that formed the wall preventing the boys from going forwards, while one other – from the poisonous wall that prevented them from going back. Two other vials, according to the poem, had wine in them, and the final three held deadly poisons. Solving the riddle without Hermione there to assist them proved to be not an easy task, but after ten or so minuted, the boys were sure that the smallest vial held the potion to protect from the yellowish poison, though there was barely enough for one swallow, while the bigger vial on the opposite end of the table had a potion that would allow the drinker to return to the previous room.

"So... What will we do now?" Harry asked. "Only one of us can continue forward." He pointed out.

"I think you should go, mate." Neville replied. "We might be placed as equals by the exams, but you are better with the wand than me." The scion of house Longbottom paused for a moment. "I'm not as great as you are, Harry... I will go bring the help, instead..." Harry shook his head.

"No, Neville, you are a great wizard, and even better friend. But you are right. It's me who must go forward: the kidnapper asked me to come... Who knows what he will do to Hermione if you come instead." And at his friend's nod, Harry drank the potion and stepped through the wall of yellowish poison. Inserting the key into the keyhole, the green-eyed wizard unlocked the door and opened it...

* * *

That's all, folks!  
The tenth chapter will be published in a week.  
Leave me a **review**.


	10. The man with two voices

Hello, everyone! Here's the newest chapter for the "_**Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord**_" story. Enjoy!

*** Review response**:  
**The Sinful**, wait for what I have in store for our 'favorite' headmaster for the 3rd year. It is but a beginning right now...  
**xavierp**, I agree with you here - the only thing Neville was useful for in the first four years was having the rememberball that allowed Harry to join the quidditch team.  
**ChaosLord SilverLink310**, and here I that I made McGonnagal _really_ professional... Oh well... =)  
**Thaumologist**, **Hanzo of the Salamander**, **Still Not Dead Yet**, **Penny is wise**, **Ratus**, **PastaSentient**, thank you, folks!

* * *

*** Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "_**Harry Potter**_" and its characters in any shape or form.

"human speech"  
"_wraith speech_"  
'_human thoughts_'  
"_**spells / parseltongue**_"

* * *

This chapter was not beta-read. Yet.

* * *

**chapter 10: The man with two voices**

As the door in front of Harry opened, he could see a well lit corridor faced with a light-brown marble tiles leading to a big circular room with eight pillars holding its high ceiling that, despite being deep under the ground, had windows that had warm sunlight pouring through them. Taking a deep breath, the green-eyed wizard started walking towards the room, flinching slightly when the door behind him closed with a thud...

When he approached the room at the end of the corridor. The young Griffindor saw that it had a pit in the center with the mirror of Erised standing in the exact center of the pit. Unfortunately, other than for the mirror, the room appeared to be empty... But as soon as he stepped closer to the pit, a stone wall rose behind him, preventing him from escaping the room.

"So you have come, Potter." A voice, laced with hate towards his family name, said. "In the end you were just a stupid attention seeking dirty-blooded Griffindor that would jump at a chance to show that he is any good. But you should not worry, your mudblood is still alive. I want you watch my master torturing her to death, after you will help him regain his body."

'_So he is a supported of Lord Voldemort_' Harry thought, still trying to find where the speaker was hiding. Most likely, he concluded, that the wizard was hiding under some charm to make himself invisible, as it seemed improbable that a fully-grown man could be hiding behind one of the pillars so well... Suddenly the young wizard saw a red beam approaching him at a great speed, but, thanks to the dodging training he had done for quiddich, Harry managed to dodge the curse. And knowing where it came from, he could tell where his invisible opponent was. "_**Petrificus totalus!**_" The still invisible 'evil man' effortlessly blocked the full body-bind curse with a semi-transparent magical shield, before sending another reddish curse at the green-eyed wizard.

"I'm surprised." The invisible man taunted. "How could the 'great' Harry Potter defeat the greatest wizard on the Earth ten years ago, when now you can't do anything to me, who is a mere servant of the Dark Lord? Hell, you even needed that traitor Snape to save you during Quidditch match!" Harry had to dodge the third curse from his opponent, while replying with an assortment of first-year hexes and jinxes... Seeing that the young Griffindor was too evasive to be hit with his _**incancerous**_ curse, the invisible man changed his tactics, and summoned a flock of sharp-beaked birds, before ordering them to attack the preteen. While Harry was busy trying to fend the annoying avians off himself, he was hit with a curse that made red-hot chains, though they didn't do any real damage to his body or his clothes, bind him... Once the young Potter was rendered immobile and unable to defend himself – Harry's wand fell out of his hand too and was now lying somewhere on the stone floor of the room – his attacker dropped whatever the charm he was using to make himself invisible, revealing himself to be Quinius Quirrell in his turban'ed glory.

"So it was you." Harry hissed through the pain the chains were making him feel. The DADA professor made an offended face.

"H-How could you s-suspect poor stuttering p-professor Q-Quirrell?" He asked, using more of his (fake) stuttering than he did during his lessons. Then he 'put' his 'mask' of the Lord Voldemort supporter – what were they called, Death Eaters? – back again. "Now you shall tell me how do I get the stone from this blasted mirror, Potter. What should I do? I can see myself presenting the stone to my Lord, I can see him using it to gain his powers back! But I can't get the stone! Tell me what I need to do, or I will start torturing your mudblood!" And with a flick of his wand Quirrell lifted a disillusionment from Hermione, who was seated against the wall across from the entrance into the room, unconscious and bound by stone rings... But as her chest was moving slightly and unevenly, Harry could tell that the man in front of him told the truth about her being alive.

"I do not know." It was a honest reply: until Harry had reached this room he didn't even knew what was the final protection of the Philosopher's stone. Unfortunately, Quirrell didn't like this answer and cast some torturing curse at Hermione, making the unconscious girl stop breathing for a moment.

"Think again, Potter." The servant of the Dark Lord said, as he trained his wand on the bushy-haired girl again.

"I do not know." The green-eyed boy repeated, hissing in pain. He knew that pleading the man to stop torturing Hermione would be useless and only result in her being harmed even more: Harry knew this personality type well – hell, he lived for the last ten years with the man who was just as cruel as Quirrell was now! The 'Death Eater' once again didn't like the answer, but this time he sent a purplish curse that made numerous cuts appear on Hermione's upper body.

"Now, this is interesting." The evil professor taunted. "Who would have thought that the hero of the wizarding world would be a sadist who likes to see his associates suffer. But let's see what you will do when you are on the receiving end of my curses..." And the man launched a deep-red curse, that made Harry feel pain stronger than any he had felt before. I was like white-hot knives were piercing every point on his body, both from outside and not. The curse caused Harry to scream so loudly that Quirrell was a bit surprised that it didn't cause the ceiling of the room to collapse... Still, no matter how much he wanted to torture the boy for what he did to his master on that Halloween night ten years ago, he had to lift the curse. For one, he needed the boy to stay sane at least until the blasted Griffindor would tell him how to get the stone out of the mirror, and then the boy was his master's to torture and kill. "I ask you again, Potter, how do I get the stone?" Each word was spoken slowly and in such way that lesser men would run away in fear from hearing just the voice.

"I... Don't k-know..." Harry replied finally, after gasping for breath for good minute. Too bad, his answer set Quirrell over the edge...

"Why you? _**Cru**_-" The evil professor was about to curse Harry again, when the new voice spoke:

"_Stop._" The voice that said it was low, hissing and just radiated evil. And it also caused Harry's scar to throb with pain stronger than ever before... But the most surprising thing about this voice was the fact that it too originated from Quirrell. "_The boy isn't lying._"

"Y-Yes, m-master." The turban-wearing man stuttered. This time for real. Then the DADA professor looked back at Harry. "How come the great Dumbledore didn't confide in his golden boy how he hid the stone?" He asked with some surprise, though the young Griffindor couldn't tell whether it was fake or not, in his voice.

"The man is just a manipulative old coot." Harry replied, still hissing from pain the chains were causing him. Quirrell raised an eyebrow.

"What is it I hear? Griffindor golden boy is at odds with the so-called leader of the Light?" The DADA professor was about to rant about something, but the evil voice hissed him to stop.

"_Quirrell! Use the boy to get me the stone out of this blasted mirror!_" It said, before making the turban-wearing man's body tense as if a jolt of pain passed through it.

"Of c-course, m-master." Using his wand, the evil professor levitated Harry in front of the mirror. "What do you see in this mirror, Potter? Do you see how to get the stone out of it?" Adding some more magic, Quirrell forced the green-eyed wizard to look straight into the mirror... Even though the pain from the red-hot chains was still clouding his rational mind, Harry could see that the mirror of Erised showed him the same thing it did back in the December: it showed him his family. Thought this time the mysterious girl in his arms had her hand slip under his robes and take an uneven blood-red stone the size of a matchstick box out of his inner pocket. The reflection-Harry smiled, and the girl put the stone back, while the real Harry felt some weight appear in his own robe's inner pocket.

"What do you, Potter?" Quirrell repeated his question.

"I see my family." The young Griffindor replied, still hissing in pain. The evil professor was about to explode again, but the hissing voice stopped him again.

"_Family, you say?_" It spoke, causing Harry's scar to flare with more pain. "_Potter._" The voice hissed then. "_If you tell me how to get the stone and promise to serve me I, Lord Voldemort, promise you to bring your parents back._"

"Like hell I will serve you!" Harry managed to exclaim.

"_Then you will die by my hand today, Potter._" The voice that claimed to be Lord Voldemort hissed. "_Quirrell, check the boy! I think he is hiding something._" The possessed DADA professor nodded and approached the young Griffindor, who was still bound and levitated by man's magic. After looking at the boy for a second, Quirrell checked Harry's pants' pockets first, but found nothing of what he wanted there. Then he checked preteen's robe's outer pockets, getting the same results. Finally, after exclaiming 'Aha!', the DADA professor went to check Harry's robe's inner pockets... Not wanting the man to get the stone, the green-eyed wizard performed a powerful bout of 'accidental' magic that loosened the chains on his right hand, allowing him to move it freely, and tried to stop man's hand from checking his inner pockets. As Harry's hand wrapped around Quirrell's, pain started flooding his senses through the scar, but the professor was now screaming in pain too, trying to free his hands from boy's grasp that obviously was hurting him... In the end, the evil professor succeeded in freeing himself, and the pain in Harry's head languished. Also as Quirrell lost control over his spells when this happened, Harry was now lying on the ground and the chains, while still binding him, were now steel-gray no longer hurt him... Looking up, the green-eyed Griffindor saw that where he had touched Quirrell, man's skin was burnt away and the flesh underneath it was gray in color, heavily damaged and falling apart at some places.

"Master it h-hurts!" The evil professor cried, but the Dark Lord didn't care.

"_Get me the stone, you, useless sack of a wizard!_" The voice hissed. Quirrell reluctantly nodded and tried to reach for the stone in Harry's pocket again, but the young Griffindor, acting on his instincts, grasped man's wrist again and, as pain from it paralyzed the older wizard momentary, then wrapped his hand around Quirrell's neck, making him scream like he was put through the most painful torture... The effect was even stronger there as Harry could feel – even though his main was hazy from the amount of pain that his cursed scar sent through his nerves – how the flesh of the evil professor withered under his touch... And then man's head fell, as the neck that supported it was completely destroyed, while the chains that were binding Harry disappeared. ...For a couple of seconds nothing happened. Then a sickly-looking black and gray smoke rose from Quirrell's head, taking shape of some specter. It had reddish eyes and slightly snake-ish 'face'. "_You've destroyed my host, Potter. But I will still get the stone from you._" The specter hissed, before flying into the body of the young Griffindor and trying to possess it...

Harry's world exploded with pain, but somehow he managed to push the unwanted entity out of his body. The last thing the green-eyed wizard saw, before losing conscious, was the specter of the Lord Voldemort flying away, while swearing in its hissing voice...

**~/ *** \~**

Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore was once again unsure what to do... On one hand , it seemed that young Harry Potter possessed the power to defeat Britain's latest Dark Lord. On the other... the boy wasn't fit for the role the old man had for him. No, sure, young Harry risked his life to save his friend and the stone – though, later was done not so willingly – but at the same time the boy too much independent and too sneaky to be guided to his destiny.

Neville Longbottom, the other possible chosen one, thanks to his upbringing, was much easier to mold on as the hero of the wizarding world like Dumbledore saw it. And the boy, despite his shyness, seemed to be the better leader than the young Potter. Plus he was a pureblood, which meant more people would follow him...

Still, it was Harry who stopped Tom again and, thus, he and not Neville should be the chosen one. So, the ancient headmaster started building new plans around this ...assumption. But before he would start implementing any of those, Dumbledore needed to make sure that he kept his positions in the wizarding world – the incident with the stone, should it become the public knowledge, would shake the faith into him the average wizarding public had, thus making it harder for him to remain in the positions from where he could guide the chosen one towards his destiny. And to do that he would need to modify some memories...

The easiest one would be Hermione: the would need to forget only about the stone: she didn't see any of the so-called 'protection' that he had placed around the stone, though removing the golem from her memories would be a good thing.

Neville would be much harder, as the boy went down the corridor with Harry and hadn't seen only the final room, the one that held the mirror. And Dumbledore thought that he was lucky that he managed to catch the boy before he told Minerva where Harry and Hermione were – the old headmaster really didn't want to modify the memory of someone from the school staff... Of course, if the Greater Good required it he would, but... All in all, the scion of house Longbottom would have to forget about the stone and about everything that was behind the door of the right-hand corridor on the third floor.

Finally, there was Harry himself. Dumbledore didn't want to _**oblivate**_ him too, but the boy could tell his friends what really had happened this day, and if they wouldn't have memories that corresponded to his story, the questions would be asked. Surely, there were oaths, but unless it was a wizard's oath, Dumbledore feared that the boy would find a loophole to tell his story to others... And the boy was too cunning and slippery to make a wizard's oath without realizing what it was, so there was a possibility of questions why he was under an oath arising – the questions Dumbledore didn't want to answer.

And since he would be modifying memories, the old headmaster needed to come up with some story that would be taking place during today's adventures of the 'trio'. And here the paper Harry and Neville gave to Minerva before going to rescue Hermione themselves gave the idea to Dumbledore. It would be like a Death Eater coming to kill Harry and avenge his master. Professor Quirrell tried to stop the man, but was killed protecting the school and the students. After killing the poor DADA professor, the Death Eater couldn't find an opening to kill Harry unnoticed and decided to use his muggleborn friend Hermione to lure the Boy-Who-Lived into his trap. Man's plan succeeded and he had captured Harry. Neville who was back then with Harry managed to escape and had informed him, Dumbledore, about what had happened, so he, Dumbledore, charged down there to save his students, but was a bit late and the Death Eater had already started torturing poor Harry and Hermione. After a quick, but brutal, duel he, Dumbledore, managed to subdue the Death Eater, but the man used an exploding potion and killed himself, while it was only his, Dumbledore's, magic that protected two children from the blast... A good story to cover what had really happened.

With is plans made up, the ancient headmaster went down to the hospital wing to make them real... Though he would have to stop by Minerva's office and ask her not to be too harsh on the boys: after all even if they did a really stupid thing, they did it to save their friend. They were true Griffindors, even if they needed to be less headstrong in their desire to protect their friends on their own and have more faith in the higher-ups if they wanted to survive in this world...

**~/ *** \~**

For the next several days Hogwarts was buzzing with gossip about what, according to Dumbledore, happened to the 'golden trio' and why Hermione and Harry were in hospital wing. Neville, whose memories the headmaster had modified, only confirmed the official story.

Professor McGonnagal had taken a hundred points each from Harry and Neville for acting hastily and going against her order to leave the matter to the stuff to deal with. But then she gave them the total of one hundred points for trying to save their friend. So Griffindor lost just a hundred points which, while still allowing the house of red and gold to be in the lead for the house cup, brought it dangerously close to Slytherin – the house of snakes was now only seven points behind...

Hermione was the first one to leave the hospital wing as it took madam Pomfrey less than two days to fix the girl – healing broken bones and cuts, even made by a dark magic, was way easier than dealing with the post-effects of torture curses, including a brief exposure to cruciatus curse, Harry was placed under... Still, the medi-witch managed to have the young Potter healed up before the end-of-year feast.

The said feast was just as great as the one on the September first, though many students of the house Slytherin, which lost the house cup for the first time in the last seven years, would disagree with that... The Great Hall during the feast was decorated with red and gold, the colors of Griffindor, but not only the house of lions were celebrating – Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw cheered too, most likely because their students were tired of Slytherin winning all the time...

And on the next morning the Hogwarts express will take the students back to London and the summer brake will officially begin.

* * *

That's all, folks!  
The eleventh chapter will be published in a week.  
Leave me a **review**.


	11. Summer holidays begin

Hello, everyone! Here's the newest chapter for the "_**Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord**_" story. Enjoy!

*** Review response**:  
**The Sinful**, the wizarding world seems to be lacking in logical (and several other, too) departments, so they (most of them, at least), no doubt, would believe every single word the great Albus Dumbledore says. Even if he says that apples are blue.  
**Penny is wise**, **Confeito**, **Reishin Amara**, **Hanzo of the Salamander**, **dark zues**, thank you, folks!  
**Dark Dragen**, "Serpent lord" will start in roughly 10 chapters. 15 at most. (the whole story is planned to be at least 50, so, don't worry)  
**Thaumologist**, Dumbledore didn't do everything to change Harry into what he wants him to be, 'cause too much mind magic at once can have bad effects on the 'patient'. Well, I think, it can have. =)  
**Ratus**, I know. I tried to contact my beta for the entire previous month, but he is silent. so... anybody wants to take the position of the beta-reader for this story?  
**Highvalour**, 4 words: "the right of conquest". This should explain the Serpent lord thing.  
**Vukk**, **Ex10**, Harry will get his memories back, but it won't happen for some time. Not that it would stop our hero from returning to the mindset he had during the first year.  
**RE5 forever**, no, Dumbledore isn't evil. He's actually misguided good guy, who does too much manipulating of others and too little of actually trying to solve things himself. But in the end, he plays a 'bad guy' role in this story.  
**Tutenstein**, because he is twelve (not yet) years old? We all tend to do stupid things at that age, don't we?  
**Still Not Dead Yet**, Harry will get suspicious in the next chapter. But the whole thing won't be resolved for some time.  
**Victorules**, voldy would play a role in Harry regaining his memories, but not in the way you wrote.

* * *

*** Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "_**Harry Potter**_" and its characters in any shape or form.

"human speech"  
"_wraith speech_"  
'_human thoughts_'  
"_**spells / parseltongue**_"

* * *

This chapter was not beta-read. Yet.  
Anyone interested in becoming my beta?

* * *

**chapter 11: Summer holidays begin**

"Harry, where are you going?" Neville asked, when he saw his friend collect something from his trunk and turn to leave their compartment. Hermione, who was reading some book, too, raised her head to look at the green-eyed wizard.

"Sorry, have some business to do. I'll be back really soon." Harry replied and quickly left the compartment, but the bushy-haired witch managed to catch a glimpse of blush appearing on his cheeks. Were she not as serious as she was, this would be a perfect teasing material... Closing the compartment door behind him, Harry put his invisibility cloak on, which he took it along with a rather small box of quality chocolates from his trunk moments before, and started looking for a certain blonde girl he wanted to congratulate.

Unlike the train ride to Hogwarts on September first, when at least first years sat randomly, now the entire student body was split by the train's compartments into many small groups, which made Harry's task of locating Draconica both easier – he knew that she hanged around Greengrass heiress and Tracey Davis, thus it was more likely that she will be sitting with them – and harder, as he would have to congratulate her in front of others.

Going through the train cars under the invisibility cloak was a bit hard, as he had to dodge all other people in corridors, but as no one saw him – or so he hoped – no questions would be asked as to where and why he was going. Still, the young Griffindor stopped by a couple of compartment on his way to say hello to his friends from quidditch team, leaving the 'protection' of his cloak or returning under it in the tambours when no one would see him.

On his way towards the first car, Harry passed past a compartment that was occupied by Crabbe and Goyle. Apparently, Draconica didn't want her two supposed 'bodyguards' to be by her side, and the two Slytherin boys, not knowing what else to do, found themselves a compartment to sleep in during the ride to London... A little further on his way, the green-eyed wizard saw the youngest male Weasley playing exploding snap with Dean Thomas while inhaling any food either of them had...

Finally, in the third car from the steam engine, Harry saw a familiar blond witch, who, indeed, was sitting with two other 'neutral' Slytherin girls. Going a little more forward, to the nearest tambour, the young Griffindor removed his cloak and, folding it, put it into his pocket. Then he backtracked to the compartment where his 'target' was, and knocked on the door.

"Can I have a moment of your time, ladies?" He asked then as he slid the compartment door half-open. All three girls looked up at him, a bit surprised to see him there... Absentmindedly, Harry noticed that Draconica had a charms book on her lap, while Daphne and Tracey were reading some magazine together.

"Potter?" The Greengrass heiress asked. "Very well." While her mask didn't show it, Daphne was quite interested in what brought the Griffindor golden boy to this compartment. The young wizard nodded and slipped in, screening the door behind him.

"Now, I know that giving gifts early is considered a bad tone in either world, but I'm not sure that I will be able to have it delivered to you the day after tomorrow safely, ms. Malfoy, so... Happy Birthday!" With those words Harry, blushing not so slightly, presented the box of chocolates to the blond witch. Draconica, a bit surprised by this – she didn't expect to get a present from him as she didn't remember telling him that her birthday was on June second, or the day after tomorrow – but still accepted the sweets. "I will get you something more substantial when I can go shopping myself." Harry added in a whisper so that only Draconica would hear him. Then he continued in a normal voice. "Well, ladies, I won't take any more of your time, so... Have a nice ride." And with a small bow the green-eyed wizard left their compartment.

While the girls were discussing what he had done, Harry made it back to the compartment where Neville and Hermione were sitting.

* * *

What young Harry didn't know, was that Dumbledore tried to adjust his relationship with ms. Malfoy when he changed his memories. But even with the power of the elder wand the old headmaster failed there as he both tried to be subtle about it, and tried not to cause any additional mind damage to the young Potter – the world didn't need an insane hero, after all. But the old manipulator didn't let it bother him much: if he could keep Harry on the light side, ms. Malfoy, through her association with him, could be used to spy against dark families and Tom himself, when he decided to reappear...

The ancient headmaster also tried to adjust young Potter's views on himself and the Dursley family – very subtly, of course – but as madam Pomfrey chose the very bad moment to go check on her patients, Dumbledore couldn't check the results of his work there, and didn't knew that this charm too wasn't completely successful...

**~/ *** \~**

Augusta Longbottom wasn't sure what to think of the latest events at Hogwarts. On one hand she wasn't happy that her grandson ran away from the Death Eater that attacked students: his father and her son wouldn't run. On the other hand, had Neville not run away, he would have being captured too – no matter how much she wanted to see an auror in him, her grandson was still just a first year student – and there would be no one to alert the stuff on time to save the attacked students from torture and possible death...

So the Longbottom matriarch settled for just congratulating Neville on doing good in his studies. At the same time, the elderly woman made a mental note to talk to the rest of the Board of Governors about getting the information out of Dumbledore about how the Death Eater managed to get into the school unnoticed. And, depending on what the old headmaster would have to say, it was possible that the Board would have to readjust the budget of Hogwarts for the next year to get the money needed to update the wards around the castle.

**~/ *** \~**

Now knowing what to do, Hermione quickly passed through the barrier that separated the platform 9¾ from the muggle part of the Kings Cross, and almost immediately saw her parents waiting for her there. As she stopped the trolley with her luggage next to where he parents were standing, the bushy-haired witch went to hug her mother and then her father – she missed them dearly since they saw each other last during the Christmas holidays.

"How was your year, Pumpkin?" Hermione's father, Dan, asked, as the girl finally released him from her hug... Apparently, they weren't informed about the Death Eater getting into the school and attacking Hermione and Harry. Not that the bushy-haired witch was going to tell them about it, lest they pull her out of the school and away from her friends.

"It was good. And I was ranked first in my year and..." Hermione started enthusiastically, but suddenly she recalled what they were said about doing magic during summer holidays, and her mood dropped a little. "Unfortunately, I won't be able to show you anything, aside from my books."

"And why is that, dear?" Her mother, Emma, asked.

"Well, as know, magical society is hidden from ...non-magical people and so that it could remain just like that, they placed restrictions, so that I can do any magic in front of ...non-magical people." Hermione replied. "There are exceptions, of course, like self-defense, but..."

"I understand." Dan Granger said. "And we should have guessed that there will be something like this. After all we didn't know anything about magic until one of your professors – McGonnagal was her name? – came the previous summer and explained that you are a witch." The man said.

"Now, pumpkin, tell us some more about your lessons." Hermione's mother changed topic to a lighter one – no one wanted to talk about politics and such on such a good day. Hermione nodded eagerly and started talking about her classes, while she and her parents made their way to the parking, where Dan's car was...

**~/ *** \~**

Unfortunately for Draconica, her father wasn't as happy to see her back. The scowl that was on his face when he greeted her at the station told the blonde girl as much. At least, like a proper pureblood, Lucius Malfoy would keep his family's business hidden from the public...

After the Malfoy family flooed to the manor where they lived, Lucius ordered one of their house elves to take Draconica's things to her room, while he led his daughter to his study, while Narcissa silently followed after them. In the study, the head of the Malfoy family sat in his armchair behind a large mahogany table with various papers in neat folders on it, while his wife took a guest's chair, leaving Draconica to be the only one standing in the room.

"It was reported to me..." Lucius began. "...That you were seen with Potter, squib Longbottom and a mudblood on multiple occasions. I originally planned to punish you most severely for not behaving like you are supposed to do, but your mother managed to talk me into postponing my decision until I hear your reasons. So explain yourself, young lady." So this was what got her father so displeased with her...

"Father, as you might already know, the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor the headmaster had hired for this year was ...not the best one." Lucius nodded: he too was displeased with Dumbledore's choice of DADA professor. "As such, if I were to receive proper education on this subject this year, I had to either do a lot of self-study, or to use notes of someone, who did. I chose Potter, because he was one at the top of the class in this subject, having marks above those any of my housemates had. Also, this allowed me to get acquiescent with him. While Potter won't be on our side, he is not Dumbledore's pawn and doesn't like the headmaster much for some reason." Draconica said.

"I see..." Her father replied, while thinking how he could use the rift between Potter and Dumbledore to further his own agenda. "But that doesn't explain your being acquiescent with the squib and the mudblood."

"The muggleborn witch Potter associates with, and I had to get acquiescent with, is Granger, who is currently ranked first in my year. She might be coming from a not-magical family, but she is a good researcher and has great memory, which allowed her to take her rank. By being acquiescent with her, I get an easy way to have the materials for my homework found and prepared for use. So for as long as I gain something from it, I see nothing wrong with being civil with her..." Draconica made a pause, before continuing. "Regarding Longbottom, father, the rumors about him being nearly a squib were wrong. He might be a bit crude in his wand work, but so far he had displayed an adequate level of magical power, in the top ten of the class, actually. And in a few years he will ascend into the Lordship of house Longbottom, which will add a political power to his magical one, making him someone, whom you don't want to be open enemies with. As such, it would be better to gain his trust now and use it when the time is right, than trying to manipulate him later. In addition to this, Longbottom is on the top of the year in Herbology and having him to help with the studies does improve my grades too." Lucius sighed: Narcissa had created a true politician from their daughter. And the arguments Draconica presented were all good and 'excused' her acquaintances, no matter how much he may dislike it.

"Very well, I believe I have heard enough." He made a pause, but Draconica's face didn't betray her worries. "I will allow you to continue being acquiescent with those three under the condition that your rank with be fifth or higher in your year. But remember that should you turn a blood-traitor, the consequences would be ...most severe."

"Thank you, father." Draconica said with a small bow. "With this be all?" Her father nodded.

"Yes, you may go." With another slight bow, the blonde girl left the study. Her mother followed her, and as soon they both were in the corridor and the study's doors were closed behind them, Narcissa knelt in front of her daughter.

"Draconica, dear..." Unlike her father, her mother did have a soft spot for her.

"Yes, mother?" The blonde girl asked.

"Tell me... Is there another reason, besides academical one, why you chose to associate with your Griffindor friends?" The older blond asked. The slip of Draconica's mask, even if it lasted a mere second, was enough for her mother to get the answer. "I see..." Narcissa said with a small smile. "Don't worry, I won't tell your father: I remember what it is to be a girl like you... Just keep in mind that there is an active contract for you there." Draconica nodded.

"Thank you, mother." But Narcissa remained knelt in front of her daughter.

"And... Don't tell this your father, but I want you to continue studying with your friends." The younger witch raised her eyebrow questioningly. "Rumors say that Dumbledore is considering hiring Lockheart as your next DADA professor. I remember the man being a couple of years below me at Hogwarts, and he was nearly at the bottom of his class... I highly doubt that he did half of the things he writes in his books." Draconica nodded. It looked like there will another year when she'll have to learn defense without the DADA professor to help her... "But don't let me take anymore time from your summer now, my little star."

...Once Draconica was back to her room, she dropped onto her bed, deep in thoughts about her possible feelings for a certain dark-haired Griffindor. He was nothing more that a study partner and a useful associate, right? Still there was something that caused her reaction to her mother's question. Sure, the young Potter was intelligent and nice to be around, but did she really see him as anything more that a mere acquittance? Apparently, she did, and that wasn't a good thing. So, hoping to destroy whatever feelings she had for the green-eyed boy before they got completely out of her control, Draconica started practicing her occlumency to keep her mind organized in the way she wanted it to be.

**~/ *** \~**

From the platform 9¾ Harry flooed to the Leaky Cauldron and, after leaving his things with Tom the bartender, went into the Diagon Alley. The green-eyed wizard had plans for his summer, and those plans needed some muggle money, so he went straight to Gringotts. There he converted a hundred galleons into five hundreds pounds – it seemed that the exchange rate was a constant here – and asked the goblin teller a question that he forgot to ask behind his excitement of being introduced to the magical world the previous summer: who had access to his vault? After receiving the answer that only the holder of the key and those with him at that moment, as well as the information that this vault was a trust one and it wasn't accessed until the previous summer, Harry thanked the teller and left the goblin-ran bank.

After collecting his things from the Leaky Cauldron, the young Potter was on his way back to Dursleys' residence. He, actually, wasn't completely sure why he felt the need to go there at all, but... At least his relatives should be in a relatively good mood as they didn't have to pick him up from the King's Cross...

* * *

When Harry finally reached number four, Privet Drive, it was already about an hour past the time Dursleys had their dinner at, so they were most likely watching some film in the living room now... The young wizard knocked on the door, and almost immediately heard heavy footsteps that could only belong to his uncle. The man opened the door and looked at him for a moment.

"It you? What are you waiting for, come in." Harry quickly entered the house. "Now, boy, give me your things so that I can put them away." The green-eyed wizard shook his head.

"I don't that this would be a great idea." Vernon immediately turned dark-red in his face.

"And why is that, boy?" He asked.

"I have a homework for summer, and if I can't complete it, _they_'ll have me repeat a year or, worse, expelled. And I can push for emancipation only after I have passed the first set of my exams." Harry lied, while trying to look like he wasn't. "Do you want me to be here more than absolutely necessary?" His uncle shook his head. "Then let me have my things during the summer. I promise that you won't see anything ...unnatural."

"Very well, boy. Take your damn things to your room!" Still red-faced man said loudly. "But if I hear or see anything freakish, you'll be very sorry." Harry nodded and started carrying his things upstairs. "And make sure that your bird doesn't wake me up, or I'll kill it!" Yelled Vernon from downstairs.

* * *

That's all, folks!  
The twelfth chapter will be published in a week.  
Leave me a **review**.


	12. Dobby's visit

Hello, everyone! Here's the newest chapter for the "_**Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord**_" story. Enjoy!

*** Review response**:  
**Thaumologist**, Draconica's contract will be revealed at the time frame of the summer 1993. (summer between Harry's second and third years)  
**Dark Dragen**, **Hanzo of the Salamander**, **Loiosh311**, **harlequin320**, **Penny is wise**, thank you, folks!  
**Highvalour**, yes, Harry will be the third power in the war that would last... about 2 minutes. *Damn, I let out a major spoiler*  
**Victorules**, read and see.  
**Still Not Dead Yet**, very well. I, though, finally managed to contact my normal beta. If he isn't willing to continue, I'll PM you. Thanks for the offer, though.  
**obsessivegirl73**, Luna... Don't know... I have no particular role for her in mind, but I'm sure I can think of something...

* * *

*** Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "_**Harry Potter**_" and its characters in any shape or form.

"human speech"  
"_wraith speech_"  
'_human thoughts_'  
"_**spells / parseltongue**_"

* * *

This chapter was not beta-read. Yet.  
Anyone interested in becoming my beta?

* * *

** chapter 12: Dobby's visit**

Harry lay on his not so comfortable bed that his relatives provided him with when they (reluctantly) gave him his own room. And the young wizard was deep in thoughts, trying to figure out what was wrong with him for something definitely was. For one, he remembered researching some kind of magical stone during the school year, that this stone – whatever it was – or at least its copy was at Hogwarts and was in danger, yet the green-eyed boy couldn't remember what exactly this stone was.

Another thing that bothered Harry were repeating nightmares he had at the beginning of the summer about him turning men into ashes by touching them with his hands. Even from those little he had read about how cognition functioned, he knew that such nightmares, especially repeating ones, didn't just spontaneously appear: they always had a reason, but once again the green-eyed wizard couldn't remember what could have caused these... Unless his subconscious ...or someone's magic, made him forget what exactly happened when he went to save Hermione from that Death Eater. That, and no one had him consoled after the event...

And then there was his headmaster Albus Dumbledore: the young Griffindor was sure that he didn't trust the ancient man one bit, and there ought to be a good reason for that, but after he was saved from the Death Eater, something happened that made him see the headmaster like the second coming of Merlin – even if the man saved his life, Harry was sure, he wouldn't see Dumbledore as someone he should blindly follow, like his mind told him to. There must be some mind magic involved there. So Harry decided that he should be really cautious around the man from now on.

Finally, there was the Dursley. Sometime near the suddenly felt like he needed to stay with them, even if as the scion of the Noble house Potter he had to have at least a couple of houses scattered around the British isles. It all seemed like someone had used a compulsion to have him return to Privet Drive. But Harry's logical side told him that he should stay there for sometime to make sure that whoever had made him come back to his relatives' house would be satisfied with the results of his magic – the green-eyed wizard didn't want to be turned into a mindless zombie, not at all – so he would have to play by someone's else rules for some time...

Turning onto his side, Harry looked at the book he was currently reading: a tome on human anatomy. Telling Dursley that he had to study a lot to be able to move out of their house as early as possible made them much more bearable – only a couple of chores for a day, and a lot of 'free time' to study. Completing his summer homework took only a couple of days, and the rest of those two weeks he had already spent at Privet Drive number four, Harry was catching up on his self-study of the medicine: he had almost abandoned it at the end of the previous school year with whatever was happening at Hogwarts.

Speaking of Hogwarts... There was another thing that was worrying the green-eyed wizard: he was yet to receive any letters from his friends, and those he had sent them were unanswered. He would have suspected that this had something to do with the mail wards around his relatives' house – why else he hadn't received any fan mail in the ten years he spent there – but Hedwig returned to her cage looking whipped a couple of times, so his mail, this time, was intercepted manually, and not very professionally at that. So, most likely, the one who did this and the one who played with his mind were two different people... Why couldn't his life be easy?

At least, getting to the mall to buy presents for his friends wasn't a big problem as he was spending his own money and all that his aunt had to do was to drive him there when she went there to buy some 'special' groceries, and then drive him back when they (she) was done...

"Boy! Get down here now!" Uncle Vernon yelled from the guest room, interrupting Harry's thoughts about finding someone at the Diagon Alley to lay a couple of enchantments on the presents to 'complete' them. Sighing, the young wizard rose from his bed and headed downstairs to see what his uncle needed...

* * *

As it turned out, Vernon had some of his clients over for a dinner, and wanted Harry to stay at his room for the whole time – why the man needed thirty minutes to 'explain' that to his nephew was beyond the comprehension of the green-eyed wizard.

When Harry finally returned to his room, though, he had to show a good deal of self-control not to shout as there was ...something sitting on his bed. As soon as he entered the room, the creature – it was about two feet tall, had greenish skin and really large eyes, and was dressed in an old and partially torn pillowcase – slipped off the bed onto the floor and bowed so low that its nose touched the thin carpet.

"Harry Potter! So long has Dobby wanted to meet you, sir... Such a honor!.." The creature, apparently named Dobby, said in a high-pitched voice. The green-eyed wizard, though, wasn't very happy to have such a guest at this time.

"Um... Who are you? And what are you doing in _my_ room? And try to be quiet." The young Griffindor asked in a serious tone. Dobby made a step back and looked at him with his big big eyes.

"Of course... The great Harry Potter wouldn't know of Dobby... I is Dobby, the house elf, sir, just Dobby." The creature, now identified as a house elf, whose name was Dobby, made a pause, before continuing. "Dobby come to... to tell you, sir... It be difficult... Dobby don't know where to begin..." Harry sighed: getting any information out of this house elf will be very difficult...

"Sit." The young wizard said, gesturing towards the only chair in his room. The house elf's eyes grew even bigger than they already were – if that was even possible...

"Oh, no... Dobby can't. Dobby not allowed to sit on equal with wizards!" Good thing, Dobby at least remembered that he was not to be loud... "But great Harry Potter tells Dobby to sit and... So great Harry Potter, sir!" Still, the house elf sat.

"So, what did you come here to tell me?" Harry asked with a sigh. This elf was quickly thinning his patience. Dobby looked at him with his big eyes and opened his mouth, but then quickly shut it and tried to reach for a lamp and hit himself with it. Harry managed to stop him, though. "What are you doing?"

"Dobby almost said bad things about his family... Dobby has to punish himself for it." Mental. This house elf was bloody mental... But already understanding that speaking this Dobby out of doing it would hard if not impossible, the young wizard decided that it would be more productive to have the thing postpone self-harming until it left the house number four at Privet Drive in Surrey.

"You can punish yourself later." The green-eyed boy said, a bit too sharply, as Dobby now looked even more scared than he 'usually' was. "What 'your' family you are talking about, and you still haven't told me what you wanted to tell first." The house elf relaxed a bit.

"Dobby be talking about wizarding family he is serving. Dobby be serving them until he dies, sir." It was clear to Harry that the house elf wasn't treated well, but it was also quite clear that Dobby couldn't leave his 'family'. And since the elf managed to get past whatever wards that surrounded Dursley's house – Harry was sure that there were some – it looked like there was some kind of magical bond between a house elf and the family it served. Symbiosis of some kind, where 'masters' started abusing 'servants'? – the green-eyed wizard really hoped that it wasn't normal, that Dobby was just unlucky to be bound to a bad 'family'.

"Well..." Harry said with another sigh, after the house elf was quite for twenty seconds. "What did you want to tell me?" Dobby looked back at him.

"Dobby be coming to warn the great Harry Potter, sir." The young wizard merely raised his eyebrow at this: the elf didn't seem to be entirely sane, so there was a chance that it was something trivial. But there also was a chance that the warning would be a real one. Anyway, it would be better to listen to whatever this Dobby had to say... "Dobby be here to warn Harry Potter... warn that terrible things will happen at Hogwarts this year." Well... this at least sounded like something serious.

"What kind of terrible things? Someone else is planning to attack the school?" Harry asked. Dobby looked torn, like he wanted to tell, but something – an oath? - prevented him from doing so. "You can just nod if I was right." The house elf nodded after being still for several seconds. The green-eyed wizard sighed... "And what is going to attack Hogwarts?" This time there was an answer.

"Dobby not knowing what be attacking Hogwarts. But Dobby know something will." Damn. Oh well, at least he was now warned... "The great Harry Potter, sir, must promise Dobby not going to Hogwarts. Harry Potter is too important to face danger at Hogwarts." This made Harry think hard. House elves seemed to be quite strong as they could bypass wards, and, he was sure, could do housework with magic, so the chances were, this Dobby could do some nasty things to keep him 'safe', were he not to promise not returning to Hogwarts. On the other hand, were Harry to make the promise and follow it, he would be in some great problems...

'_But he wants me to make a promise, not an oath..._'Harry thought then. '_And thus I can promise and still go, as it won't be binding... Plus I'm asked to promise not to go, while students are taken to Hogwarts by train and then by either boats or carriages... So, technically, I won't be going to school, I'll ride there._' Forcing himself not to smirk, the green-eyed wizard spoke with a false resigned sigh: "Very well, I won't be _going_ to Hogwarts." His 'guest' beamed at him.

"Dobby be so happy! Dobby be able to keep the great Harry Potter safe!" Then the house elf's mood darkened a bit as the creature became serious. "Dobby feels that he can give the great Harry Potter his letters back now." And he produced quite a thick wad of letters out of his pillowcase-like clothes.

"So that was you interfering with my mail." The green-eyed wizard said coldly.

"Harry Potter, sir, shouldn't be angry, Dobby did this for the best. Dobby hoped... Hoped that if Harry Potter thought that his friends had forgotten about him, Harry Potter wouldn't want to be returning to Hogwarts." The young Griffindor forced himself not to yell at the house elf, as it would, no doubt, bring Dursley's ire upon him.

"Give me the letters. ...Please." Dobby exploded into blabbering about how great Harry Potter was and how he was so kind to Dobby, but gave the letters to the young wizard. But as the house elf was passing the wag to Harry, Dobby's eyes landed onto the signature on one of the letters, and he, almost dropping the letters, did a step back, his eyes wide in horror.

"Dobby be punishing himself most severely... Dobby be interfering with his young mistress' letters... And the young mistress was always kind to Dobby..." Judging by the way the house elf expected to be treated, 'kind' most likely meant that this 'young mistress' – Draconica? Harry couldn't think of any other girl at Hogwarts coming from a dark family that would have a reason to send him a (friendly) letter – was just more forgiving and let Dobby have more freedom in how he was doing the things the house elves did. While Dobby kept telling how kind his young mistress was and how bad he was for intercepting her letters, Harry looked through the letters he got from the crazy house elf's possession: three of them were indeed from Draconica, another two were from Neville and five more from Hermione. The final seven were the letter he himself tried to send to his friends... Finally, the green-eyed wizard grew tired of listening to the house elf – thankfully he wasn't overly loud – and decided that it was time for the little thing to return 'home'.

"Um..." The young Griffindor said as politely as he could in his current mood. "Dobby, not that I don't enjoy your company, but shouldn't you be returning home now? What if your 'family' notice that you went somewhere on your own?" Dobby looked at the alarm clock Harry had next to his bed and his eyes widened in horror once again.

"The great Harry Potter sir is right. Dobby should be returning home. Dobby be going now..." And the crazy house elf disappeared from the room with a quiet 'pop'. Sitting down onto his bed, Harry browsed through the letters, before deciding that he would reply to all of them first thing tomorrow morning... And being not in the mood to continue reading, the young wizard decided to call it a day, and go to sleep early tonight.

**~/ *** \~**

Back at Hogwarts, one certain old man with too many titles was thinking of the ways to bring the magical Britain to the Light side, now that he was sure that he had his control over the 'Chosen One' and could guide him to bring the world to the Greater Good... Still, with the independent streak young Potter had shown, the ancient headmaster knew he had to be very subtle in his manipulations, lest Harry decided that he knew better how the things should be done.

Still, Albus Dumbledore thought, he should keep an eye on Neville too, as there still was a small chance that he made a mistake and the scion of house Longbottom was the real 'Chosen One', and Harry's protection against the wraith of lord Voldemort wasn't boy's own power of love, but the sacrifice of his mother... The old man sighed: why couldn't that wand choose either boy and make it clear, which one was the true savior of the wizarding world? Why everything had to be so difficult?

Sighing again, the ancient headmaster resumed plotting to change the wizarding world for the Greater Good, making sure that he always had a backup plan or two, in case his current judgment of which of the two boys was the 'Chosen One' was wrong...

Saving the world from the darkness was so difficult...

**~/ *** \~**

"Hello, Tom." Harry said as he entered the Leaky Cauldron one afternoon in the middle of July. "I'd like to rent a room till the end of summer." The bartender smiled and gave the green-eyed wizard a key to the room number seven – not that Harry cared about what his room's number was. Thanking the man, the young wizard headed to 'his' room.

Like the room next door he stayed at at the end of the previous summer, this one was about the same size as his room at Dursley's household, but had a much more comfortable furniture and looked much better, though pretty much sterile, like any good unoccupied hotel room should... After placing Hedwig's cage next to the window, so that she had her own place to rest when she would return there, Harry unpacked his own things, including his collection of books on medicine.

Looking at the titles, the young wizard noticed that he was almost done with the easier books he had and, unless he wanted to start reading on something like physiology of higher neural activity, he'd better get some new books. Magical ones, so that his knowledge wouldn't be too one sided. But as there was still enough reading material to last him until the school started, the green-eyed wizard decided to be lazy and postpone his visit to Flourish and Blotts until he got his list of school supplies for the second year. Still Harry had some business in the Diagon Alley...

Even with the pointers from Tom the bartender it took the young wizard some time to find the enchanter at Diagon Alley, as the man's workshop was rather small, didn't have any really noticeable signboards and was quite far away from the entrance to the Alley.

"Hello, anybody here?" Harry asked, when he entered the workshop and was greeted only by a jingle of small silver bells. Looking around, the green-eyed Griffindor couldn't see anything but various enchanted item and half-completed projects on the tables that stood in disarray around the room. "Anyone?" Harry asked louder, hoping that the owner of the shop was just too engrossed in his work and hadn't heard him the first time.

"I'm coming, I'm coming." An old and rasped voiced replied from behind what Harry thought was a solid wall. Several seconds later a well-hidden door behind the counter opened, and the owner of the shop emerged from it... The man, Emilio Fagonini, if the small signboard wasn't lying, looked like a classical mad scientist: shoulders-long untidy and a bit dirty gray hair, pale skin, big glasses with several different lenses and various carving instruments in pockets of dusty robe. "What brings you to my shop, young man?" Emilio asked, as he looked at his potential client through his goggles.

"I need self-refilling enchantment laid on these." Harry said, while handling four fountain pens of different designs to the shop owner, who studied them through various lenses of his glasses, before placing them on the counter. "And self-refilling and preservation enchantments on these ones." This time it was a modern ball pen with several spare cores of different colors. The enchanter studied those ones too, before making his verdict.

"Yes, yes, that can be done, young man, but enchanting objects isn't cheap, you know... For the quills, all four of them, I'll ask fifteen galleons from you, and another three for this curious muggle pen. Eighteen in total, with a third paid in advance... And a week of time to have everything done." While what the shop owner asked for laying enchantments was quite a lot, it was still less than these pens cost Harry to buy, so he agreed to pay without any fuss.

"Very well, I'll come here next Friday to collect them." The green-eyes wizard said, while handing the enchanter six galleons.

"I be sure to have everything done by then." Emilio replied, before heading back to his workplace.

* * *

That's all, folks!  
The next chapter will be published in on Monday.  
After that, though, there will be no update till the end of July as I will be at the army camp without access to PC or internet.

Leave me a **review**.


	13. Shopping and estate management

Hello, everyone! Here's the newest chapter for the "_**Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord**_" story. Enjoy!

*** Review response**:  
**Hanzo of the Salamander**, **Evci**, thank you for your reviews!  
**Highvalour**, well, maybe not two minutes, but not more than an hour, definitely.

* * *

*** Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "_**Harry Potter**_" and its characters in any shape or form.

"human speech"  
"_wraith speech_"  
'_human thoughts_'  
"_**spells / parseltongue**_"

* * *

_This chapter was not beta-read. Yet.  
* Potter vault contents were fixed *  
_

* * *

**chapter 13: Shopping and estate management**

Being lazy, when allowed freedom, Harry had postponed his visit to the Gringotts bank – he needed to see the state of Potter house's finances – till he would go there to get money for his shopping for his second year at Hogwarts. So, the green-eyed wizard spent the next week either in his room at the Leaky Cauldron or at the Fortescue ice-cream parlor, reading his books on medicine.

When the week the enchanter asked for to do his job passed, the young Griffindor visited his workshop again, testing the results of man's work himself. Being satisfied with what was done, Harry paid the man for his work, and even promised to stop by his shop if he ever needed to lay enchantments on anything else.

Late in the evening of July twenty ninth, Harry sent Neville a letter where he wished his friend a Happy Birthday. Attached to the letter, there was a small package that contained the enchanted fountain pen the young wizard got for his friend – it even was in the colors of house Longbottom's coat of arms – and an instruction of how to use and maintain the said pen. Harry hoped that his friend would like his gift, especially since it was both looked good and was useful.

Neville loved the gift the green-eyed wizard got him. Or at least that was what he wrote in the letter he wished Harry Happy Birthday in – the two boys were born within twenty eight hours, actually. And considering now neatly the letter looked and the fact that it was written in the exact same ink Harry used to test the enchantments on the pen, the young Potter was sure that his friend wasn't just nice to him. The two rather old tomes on medical herbal mixes Neville sent as his gift to him could attest to that too...

On August the fourth the letter from Hogwarts with a list of books required for his second year at Hogwarts arrived. And seeing seven books written by Gilderoy Lockhart on the list made Harry a little apprehensive of who will be teaching DADA in the coming year... He really didn't like fangirls, and the new professor made an impression of being one. Oh well...

Since the letter arrived late in the afternoon, the young wizard decided to do the shopping tomorrow, when all of the shops would be open. And finally have a meeting with the house Potter estate manager.

**~/ *** \~**

Bright and early in the morning Harry entered the white marble building of the Gringotts bank. Since it was still early, there weren't many customers there, so finding a free teller wasn't hard at all.

"Good morning, master teller." After his second visit to Gringotts – the one on the day he was introduced into the wizarding world – the green-eyed wizard decided that most magicals were stupid in showing no respect to those, who managed their money... The goblin teller showed no reaction to being addressed to for about twenty seconds, as he continued to measure some gems. Finally, the teller decided that he had made Harry wait for long enough.

"What do you want, wizard?" The goblin asked with a sneer, showing his teeth to the human. The said green-eyed wizard tried not to look intimidated by that.

"I wish to meet with the manager of Potter account at his earliest convenience." The last words Harry said in such tone, that they couldn't be interpreted in any other way than 'right now'. The goblin teller looked at the young wizard in front of him: the nerve of those wizards!

"Even if you are indeed _the_ Harry Potter, you are too young to be bothering master Goldsaw, wizard." The goblin sneered in response. "Unless you have any other business with Gringotts, leave." So Potter's estate manager's name was Goldsaw, huh?

"As I'm the scion of the Noble house Potter, and the last living member of the said house, I'm allowed to _oversee_ the state of my house's estate thence I turn eleven." This was a written rule of Gringotts. Well, it was written in a much more gaudy language, but the idea was this... The goblin teller made a face like he swallowed a lemon, but had to grant Harry his request.

"Very well. Master Goldsaw will see you if he is not busy." The teller summoned a younger goblin and told him something in a quick gobbledegook. The younger goblin nodded and disappeared behind one of the large doors that were there behind counters. A couple of minutes later, the assistant goblin returned and made a report in gobbledegook to the teller, who nodded, before turning to Harry and addressing him. "It appears that you are lucky, wizard. Goldsaw will see you. If you can prove that you are indeed Harry Potter, of course." With that the teller handed a parchment and a deep-red, almost black, quill to Harry. Understanding what was required of him, the young wizard wrote his name on the parchment, wincing slightly as the blood quill 'wrote' exact copy of his 'signature' on the back of his hand... At least that healed just moments after. "Very well, Mr. Potter. Rustknife would guide you to master Goldsaw." The teller said, as he examined the signature.

"Follow me." The assistant goblin said, before he started walking towards one of the doors out of the bank's lobby. Harry did as said, and followed him... They walked through the corridors that made up a maze not unlike the one, formed by the tunnels underneath the bank leading to the vaults. Finally, they arrived to a massive door of dark wood that had a golden nameplate for 'Goldsaw', along with the list of his titles. The assistant goblin lead Harry into the Goldsaw's office: a large room, that had two levels – lower level had a sofa and a small table, and was for customers, while the higher level held estate manager's massive table of dark wood and was dimly lit, making the goblin look more intimidating than he, a retired warrior, looked otherwise.

"It was more than a decade since a Potter visited me." Goldsaw said, once Harry was sitting on the sofa in front of him. "From what I'm told, you wish to see the state of your house's finances." The young wizard just nodded: while this goblin didn't behave like he was a dirt on the ground, Goldsaw was still very intimidating. The goblin handed him quite a thick ledger with a Potter crest on it. "Read it. If you have questions – ask me. But try not to be too wearisome, as I'm very busy right now." Nodding again, Harry opened the ledger and started reading.

First and foremost, there was information on his trust vault: it was to activate on his tenth birthday, and would deactivate when he became an adult – normally that would happen on his successfully passing his OLWs as he was the last member of a Noble house, but there were ways of becoming an adult earlier. Though, none of those looked good: he didn't want to be tried in front of the full Wizengamot, for example... His trust vault was set to contain two thousands galleons and to refill itself once a year on July thirty first. He was allowed to take any amount of money from his trust vault, but even if it became empty, it wouldn't refill till next August.

The Potter family vault, on the other hand, was currently inaccessible to him in terms of money and other objects, like a small library, contained there. The vault contained impressive three and a half hundreds thousands galleons – well, a little more than that, as there was a lot of sickles and knuts there too – several dozens of jewels that were worth another hundred thousands galleons combined, a collection of old and rare books, some of which were priceless, and some other things from old times.

After the information about 'his' vaults, the ledger contained data on Potter family's properties. First there was a manor – located under powerful wards somewhere in Wales – but it was all but ruined after the fire in nineteen eight three. Then there was a cottage at the Godric's Hollow, which was both destroyed and turned into a national monument: He-who-must-not-be-named was defeated there, after all... There also were a penthouse near the center of London and a summer house not far away from Brighton, but both were under stasis that could be remover only either by his legal guardian – Dumbledore the suspicious – or by himself, when he would reach majority. It appeared that it would be still several years before he will be able to move out of the number four Privet Drive.

Finally, the ledger had the information about shares of stocks in various wizarding business Potter family owned. Unfortunately, there wasn't much of interest to Harry, though, he noticed that the most of the shares of stocks were either in firms that worked with potions' ingredients, or with charms and enchantments. Also, there was some a share of stock in General Electrics, but that seemed to be the only muggle business house Potter was investing into... All in all, the stocks house Potter owned were worth roughly thirty five thousands galleons.

Done with the current state of his estate, the green-eyed wizard looked into what it was in the past: the ledger contained such information too... It looked like his grandfather, Charles Potter, was quite a good businessman, as he managed to have the main vault contain almost a million of galleons in gold – and another quarter in jewels. But that was in sixties to middle seventies. After that the war with Voldemort started, and new lord Potter, Harry's father James, was financing the Light side, which, in the end, brought the house to its current state.

"Master Goldsaw,.." Harry addressed to his estate manager the same way the teller did – hopefully the goblin in front of him wouldn't find it rude. "...Thank you for providing me with this information about the state of my house's estate." With that he handed the ledger back to the goblin. "Being the last member of a Noble house, and being older than eleven, I would like to make a few suggestions about the investment politics of the house Potter. Of course, since I'm still a minor, you, as my estate manager, are the one who decides whether following those suggestions is profitable or not, but I'd be thankful if you at least listen to what I have to say." Goldsaw looked at the young man in front of him.

"Very well. I will listen to your suggestions Mr. Potter, but, as you said, it's up to me to decide, should those changes be made or not." The goblin said, while mentally preparing himself for requests like buying Zonko or something like that.

"Since my _uncle_ is a businessman, I'm forced to listen to the business news quite often and, as such, I have an idea of what's going on around the globe. First and foremost, I'd like you to triple the share of stock of General Electrics Potter house owns. Next, I'd like you to buy shares of stocks in Microsoft and Apple companies, each in the muggle equivalent of five thousands galleons: both companies are muggle and analytics say that both are really unlike to face anything but increase of their value for the time being." Harry said. Judging by the expression on Goldsaw's face, this was not what the goblin expected him to say... It actually took him a couple of second to recover his normal expression of 'being better than you'.

"I see..." Goldsaw said slowly. "I will ask the analytic team of Gringotts to look into the companies you named. If their results agree with yours, I will follow your suggestions for the investments." Harry nodded. "Is there anything else Gringotts can do for you today, Mr. Potter?"

"Yes, though, I think I shouldn't bother you with me getting some galleons out of my trust vault." The green-eyed wizard said, and he got ready to head back to bank's main lobby.

"No, no, Mr. Potter, there is no reason for you to face the queues again." With that the Potter estate manager activated some rune on his table and moments later a young goblin entered the office. "Sharptooth will guide you to your vault."

"Thank you." The young wizard replied, and followed the young goblin out of Goldsaw's office...

**~/ *** \~**

Harry had to agree with Hagrid there: those carts were evil. But then again, they were one of the few ways goblins could have their payback with the arrogant wizards that insulted them... Checking that the money bag with almost all of those two thousands galleons he was allowed to spend during the year was still with him, Harry headed out of the bank: he had a shopping to do.

First and foremost, he needed to restock his potion ingredients – Snape, er... professor Snape made it clear that he would pass Harry with acceptable only if Harry's potions were nearly perfect. And perfection needed a lot of practice... As such, the green-eyed wizard was burning through his stock of potion ingredients at an alarming rate... Plus he needed a new set of vials.

Once he was done with the apothecary and other minor shops he needed to visit, the young wizard headed to Flourish and Blotts to buy himself the books he will need his year. But once he got closer to the bookstore, he saw that there was a lot of people there, trice or even more than there normally were in the shop, and they were mostly housewives and teenage girls. And the most disturbing thing was that they all behaved like fangirls in front of their idol.

As Harry came closer to the bookstore, his suspicion was proven correct: those were fangirls... And the reason they were there was explained by a big sign near the entrance to the shop that said about Gilderoy Lockhart held book signing today. Sighing, the young Griffindor decided to postpone his visit to this particular shop: he had no desire to go jostle through such crowds in order to get his books. So he headed back to the Leaky Cauldron to put his things there. But when he was passing by the shop's entrance, the crowd of fangirls suddenly started moving, as if they tried to avoid something.

Moments later Harry saw exactly what they were trying to avoid: a red-haired man in late forties, presumably the father of his (Harry's) classmate Ron Weasley, was brawling against aristocratic blonde man who could be no one but Lucius Malfoy... Scanning the crowds, Harry soon saw Draconica walking towards the queue to the counter with the books in her hands. She saw him too, and nodded to him in greeting. The green-eyed wizard nodded back and was about to continue on his way to the Leaky Cauldron, when his eyes caught Mr. Malfoy – who by now stopped fighting with Mr. Weasley – looking intently at the cauldron with books that a red-haired girl, young ms. Wealey, had. Something just felt fishy about the whole thing, but since it was none of his business, Harry ignored it and walked away...

* * *

After leaving the things he had bought in the morning in his room at the Leaky Cauldron, and having a quick lunch there, Harry returned into the alley. He was there to but himself a new – and decent – broom. No, Harry was sure that Oliver would allow him to use his broom this year too, but the green-eyed wizard felt bad about forcing his captain to use an old and outclassed broom that his (Harry's) Cleansweep four was.

Since the Nimbus company released the new model this summer, the previous one – the Nimbus 2000 – was now sold with rather big discounts, which allowed one to buy a more than decent sport broom at the cost of little more the one thousand and four hundreds galleons. And Harry was going to buy himself one of those 'old' Nimbuses.

That only left the young Griffindor with the problem of what he should do with his Cleansweep. On one hand, his rational and materialistic side wanted to keep it and use it as a spare broomstick, in case something would happen to his Nimbus. On the other, knowing the state of Hogwarts' brooms, the softer side the young Potter possessed wanted him to gift his old broom to the school. In the end, after some thinking, Harry decided to try to sell his Cleansweep to Hogwarts at half the price it would have on the second-hand market...

**~/ *** \~**

The next day, the young wizard made another tour into the Diagon Alley, this time heading straight to the Flourish and Blotts. After picking all of the books he would need at school this year – he was lucky that there were Lockhart's books left after what was happening there yesterday – the green-eyed wizard started browsing the shop for books on magical medicine.

Unlike the muggle bookstores, though, he couldn't find any books on anatomy or physiology or psychiatry or, well, anything like that there... It seemed that in the magical world medicine was more like sets of spells and potions that were discovered to help in certain cases, than a real science. Still, knowing those spells and potions would be nothing, but helpful, so the young Potter bought himself books on basic healing charms and on medical potions.

Even if the shopkeeper was surprised by Harry's choice of his reading material, he didn't show it, and sold the books without any questions as to why the 'Boy-who-lived' wanted to study medicine or something like that. And it suited Harry just fine...

* * *

Later that day, in the afternoon, Harry flipped through Lockhart's books, hoping to see how exactly they would be useful for the DADA class. The answer, unfortunately, was this: this books were pathetically useless, unless you wanted a novel written by a narcissist author. They were a waste of money – and no a small amount of gold at that – and the teacher, who chose them, wasn't like to be any better than professor Quirrell was. If anything, the new teacher would be even more useless than a constantly stuttering man, who made it look like he was afraid of his own shadow, was. Oh well, Hogwarts had a great library and there definitely were _normal_ second year DADA textbooks to study the subject form...

* * *

That's all, folks!  
There will be no updates till July 18th - I will be at the army camp without access to PC or internet.

Leave me a **review**.


	14. Back to Hogwarts

Lieutenant Solovyev reporting in with the newest chapter for the "_**Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord**_" story! Jokes aside, I'm back from the army camp, so the new chapters will be posted weekly again. =)

*** Review response**:  
**scottss**, **Evci**, I'm back, so you don't need to worry anymore!  
**obsessivegirl73**, thanks!  
**XM312**, **Ratus**, fixed that error, thanks for noticing.  
**Loiosh311**, **Hanzo of the Salamander**, **god of all**, **Penny is wise**, **Victorules**, **Still Not Dead Yet**, **WindMirrorAutumn**, **DonPJuan**,** Anetheiseya**, thank you, folks!  
**kazikamikaze24**, living basilisk... hm... I have something else planned. *evil laughter*  
**Reishin Amara**, it's name will NOT be DA, but it will be there... Soon.

* * *

*** Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "_**Harry Potter**_" and its characters in any shape or form.

"human speech"  
"_wraith speech_"  
'_human thoughts_'  
"_**spells / parseltongue**_"

* * *

_This chapter was not beta-read. Yet.  
_

* * *

**chapter 14: Back to Hogwarts**

The rest of the summer was rather quiet for Harry: the young Potter spent it sitting in the squares of the Diagon alley – there were three there – or in the Fortesque's ice cream parlor, with his nose in the books, as he was either studying ahead in his Hogwarts subjects, or doing his own studies in the fields of medicine, both muggle and magical...

On September the first at about nine thirty in the morning, the green-eyed wizard descended into the public area of the Leaky Cauldron for his breakfast, his things with him. The pub surprisingly wasn't very crowded, and the young Griffindor didn't have any problems with making and, then, getting his order. Thirty minutes and a great meal, courtesy of Tom the bartender, later, the scion of house Potter used the public floo, located in the pub to get to the platform 9¾.

Since it was nearly an hour before the express would depart, there weren't many people on the platform and most of the compartments were empty, allowing Harry to easily choose where to sit. After a couple of seconds of thinking, the young wizard chose a compartment in the car near the center of the train. After laying some simple charms on the door, so that he won't be disturbed too much, the Potter heir returned to reading one of his anatomy books. He had to find Draconica to give her the rest of his birthday present to her, but that would wait till the train would depart and everyone would be seated the way they wanted...

Half an hour later he was joined by Hermione, who, like him, started reading a book – but a transfiguration tractate, unlike his medical one – once her bags were secured on the luggage cupboard. Another ten minutes later the final member of the Griffindor 'golden trio' and no one other than Neville Longbottom, joined them in the compartment. After exchanging greetings with his friends and thanking Harry for his birthday gift, the slightly pudgy boy pulled a pot with some magical plant from his trunk and started working on it with his wand..

* * *

About an hour after the Hogwarts express departed from the Kings Cross, Harry excused himself from the compartment he and his friends were occupying and started looking for his Slytherin friend – he thought of Draconica as one, even if the blond witch would deny that they anything more than mere accomplices... After checking compartments in several cars behind the one the trio was in, the young Potter finally found the compartment Draconica was sitting in. Of course, with her 'friends' Daphne and Tracey... There was a charm around girls' compartment, very similar to the one he had placed on his own, but he bypassed it easily – the caster of the charm wasn't thinking of him as an unwanted guest...

"Ladies, allow me to take a couple of minutes of your time." Harry said as he opened the door, after knocking on it. Draconica nodded, as she was quite sure about whom the boy in front of her came to. "Ms. Malfoy, like I had promised you back on the last day of May, here's the second part of my gift to you." After saying that, the green-eyed wizard presented the pens to the blond witch, who accepted them right away. "They are enchanted to never run out of inks, and their quills are made from metal, so they will never break either." Harry added with a small blush appearing on his face. "I hope, you'll like them."

"Thank you." Draconica said, as she put her gift into the chest pocket of her robes... Looking 'round the compartment, the scion of the house Potter sighed lightly. "Guess, I shouldn't take any more of your time, ladies. See you all at school." And with that Harry left the girls' compartment...

"Someone's falling for the Griffindor 'golden boy'?" Tracey teased her friend – she had noticed the momentary slip of Draconica's mask when she accepted Harry's gift. The blond witch sent her a glare.

"Why does everyone think that there is anything going on between me and Potter? We are just associates." Draconica replied with an annoyed sigh, causing Tracy giggle and say something about denying feelings being not healthy.

**~ /***\ ~**

Roughly fifteen minutes after Harry returned to the compartment he and his friends were occupying, the door was rudely opened – the charm to keep 'undesired' away didn't work for some reason... Was it designed against those who had at least some intelligence? - by Crabbe and Goyle.

"...Potter, I'm talking to you, dammit!" An angry voice that came from between two human trolls caused the Potter scion to stop thinking about the reasons for his charm's failure and look closely at those who had disturbed him... Between Crabbe and Goyle there was another boy, one of those yet to be sorted first year students, judging by his uniform. He had blond hair and snobbish expression on his face, and looked like he was a young clone of lord Malfoy... Had Harry not met Lucius in the Diagon alley this summer, he would have troubles believing that _this boy_ could be related to Draconica.

"Sorry, you said something?" The green-eyed wizard said, as he bookmarked the page he was reading and closed the book... Annoying a heir to a _noble_ house like house Malfoy wasn't a good idea, but right now Harry didn't care.

"I said, ditch these losers and become my friend, Potter. Surely, you must see that associating with a squib and a mudblood isn't good for you: you're already becoming deaf." The little snob said, but succeeded only in making Harry angry – the young Potter, having spent his childhood without friends, was very protective of those few friends he had now...

"How about you get lost instead?" The dark-haired Griffindor hissed in a controlled anger. "And take your lackeys with you." ...The Malfoy heir didn't like this response.

"When my father hears of this, Potter, he will..." The blond boy couldn't finish, as Harry levitated him and his 'bodyguards' out of the compartment, before shutting the door close and laying a locking charm on it.

"Who was that?" Harry asked, nodding to where the invaders were standing moments ago. "I can tell the the blondie is a Malfoy, but I don't remember Draconica saying that she had a brother. Not that I asked much about her home life..."

"You are right, mate, that brat, indeed, was a heir to the house Malfoy. His name is Basilius and, like you can guess yourself, he starts Hogwarts this year." Neville replied, as he stopped making notes about his plant. "And as for him being the 'secret' brother of Draconica... This brat is spoiled rotten by his father, 'cause he will be next lord of the house, and will bring even more glory to the name Malfoy, etcetera, etcetera... While Draconica, as a girl, is pretty much useless, beyond being a way to secure an alliance with another house, in their eyes, and she is just tolerated by her father."

"That is very barbaric!" Hermione exclaimed. Neville nodded.

"I agree with you, but Malfoy family is a dark one – their lord, at least – and they are very patriarchal, more so than most other noble houses... the daughters of the house are loved much less than sons there... But don't think it is always like this. Blacks are patriarchal and even darker than Malfoys, but the daughters to that house were always loved." The scion of the house Longbottom said. Harry said nothing, but in his mind he was relating himself to the blond witch...

* * *

Neville's 'lesson' had put the compartment into a dark mood, and it hadn't lightened much by the time the train reached Hogsmeade station. Heavy clouds that were ready to pour down a cold rain didn't help there either.

But that little issue aside, Harry – and he was sure, his friends too – was glad to return to the old castle of Hogwarts. This time, like all older students, the 'golden trio' rode horseless carriages to the front doors of the school. Somehow, they managed to be the only ones in theirs, even though each carriage should have had four passengers. Oh, well... Another difference from what they had experienced the previous year, they were allowed to the Great hall right away, instead of having to wait for professor McGonnagal to invite them.

Quickly scanning the professors' table, the green-eyed wizard saw only one new face – a blond-haired man in forget-me-not blue robes who definitely looked like he spent too much time in front of a mirror. Was that their new DADA professor? Maybe Quirrell wasn't _that_ bad after all...

Once everyone was seated, professor McGonnagal left the Great hall, no doubt, to bring the first years there for their sorting. Indeed, a couple of minutes later, the Scottish woman returned with a group of eleven year old boys and girls in school robes that didn't have house symbolic yet. The hat sang its song – a new one – and the sorting started. For the first couple of minutes it was interesting to see the sorting from the sidelines, but it soon became a bit boring... Still, there were several students, whose sorting Harry watched with interest: Luna Lovegood – a strange blond girl with radish earrings he had met on the train while looking for Draconica – became a Ravenclaw, Basilius Malfoy joined the ranks of the house of serpents, while Ginerva Weasley – Ron's younger sister, who was giving the Potter scion 'strange' looks the moment she saw him – was sorted into Griffindor. ...Good thing all seats around Harry were occupied, or he would have to deal with an obsessed fangirl for the duration of the feast...

When all first years were sorted, Dumbledore stood up and told Hogwarts students about the Forbidden forest being forbidden and about the list of banned things being hung on Filch's office's door.

"...An one more thing, before you all can start the magnificent dinner that was prepared for you: this year your professor for Defense Against the Dark Arts will be no one other than the honorary member of the Dark Force Defense League, Order of Merlin third class, Gilderoy Lockhart." The man blue robes stood up and gave everyone a bright smile, causing many boys, Harry and Neville included, to groan, while lots of girls ah-ed and oh-ed at him.

Lockhart then made a speech, and not a short one, but those who payed enough attention to what the man was saying could clearly hear that the man didn't knew a thing about how or what to teach his students in DADA class... Still, he got a lot of applause for his speech. Once the Great hall was relatively quiet again, Dumbledore had the welcome feast start.

* * *

After the feast was finished, the students were sent to their respective common rooms, and, while many stayed there, Harry went upstairs to the bedrooms right away to lay some wards on his bed, and, having had some experience in that the previous year, it didn't take him a lot of time to complete this task.

**~ /***\ ~**

While the scion of the house Potter was ensuring that he wasn't disturbed at least in his bed, in the Slytherin dungeons the heir to another noble house was fighting the battle for the status of the unofficial leader of the house. In other words, Basilius Malfoy was trying to prove to Theodore Nott that he was the top dog out there – tried to prove that by using threats of telling his father that things were not the way he wanted.

The fight of the wills lasted for almost half an hour, and in the end, the power behind the name Malfoy won, even though the heir to the house had nothing else, no special magical powers, no great talents or cunning, nothing...

From the far corner of the Slytherin common room a pair of gray eyes was watching the whole event. And the way Basilius was acting made Draconica think that her father made several mistakes in the way he raised her brother: the way the boy acted could only incite people to see the house Malfoy as bullies and spenders that relied on their ancestors' fame and money and did nothing on their own – not a good reputation, not at all...

**~ /***\ ~**

The morning came, and the school year at Hogwarts was about to start for real. Like usual, Harry was one of the first in the Griffindor tower to wake up, and thus he was down to the Great hall for some breakfast and morning reading by the time most of his housemates were just dragging themselves out of their beds...

Eventually, approximately at half past eight all students of the house of the lions had assembled in the Great hall, and professor McGonnagal started handing out the timetables. A single glance at his told Harry that Friday would be his least liked day once again:

_**Monday**__: double DADA (S) – lunch – double Charms (R).**  
Tuesday**: Herbology (R) – Charms (S) – lunch – Transfiguration (H) – History of Magic (R).**  
Wednesday**: History of Magic (H) – Herbology (S) – lunch – Charms (R) – Transfiguration (S)**  
Thursday**: double Transfiguration (R) – lunch – Astronomy (all) at 11 pm.__**  
Friday**: lunch – double Potions (S) – DADA (S)._

Well, at least he had no lessons with Lockhart till, once again, Friday – the man was making his skin crawl for some reason. Maybe that had something to do with the narcissistic way the man acted, or maybe with how he was a glory hound... Anyway, Harry had three full days to get used to the idea that _that man_ will be his professor for this year...

* * *

The students, who got their timetables were now hurrying back to their dormitories to get the books they needed for their lessons, but the young Potter continued his breakfast: thanks to a couple of useful enchantments he had everything he could need, featherlight-ened of course, in his trunk...

Ronald Weasley rushed past him, still chewing a piece of beacon – apparently the redhead had learned his lesson about needing to be on time for his lessons... But it appeared that the fates still wanted to punish the boy, as he got to the doors that led out of the Great hall at the same time with Basilius Malfoy and his bodyguards Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle.

"Out of my way, blood traitor!" Blond's words were followed by Crabbe pushing Ron to the side and into the jamb. Moment later a faint sound of wood cracking was heard – that was Weasley's poor wand which the boy had in his robe's pocket... McGonnagal, of course, was there a moment later, berating the young Slytherins for his actions and choice of words. But that could do nothing to help Ron out of his predicament...

* * *

Twenty minutes later, and ten minutes before the lessons would start, Ravenclaws and Griffindors, including Harry and Ron, who was nursing his cracked and winded round with some spellotape wand, were descending to the greenhouses for their Herbology lesson.

The group of second year students stopped at the lawn in front of the greenhouses, waiting for their professor, and not a minute later they saw her approaching them, accompanied by Gilderoy Lockhart, who was trying to tell the witch one story or another. Judging by her face, professor Sprout didn't like her colleague's company that much...

"Greenhouse three, everyone." Sprout said, causing a murmur of interest among her students – the third greenhouse held much more interesting – and dangerous – plants than the first one, where their lessons were held the previous year... As the students were moving into the greenhouse, Lockhart caught the sight of one Harry Potter, much to said boy's annoyance:

"Bless me, that's really Harry Potter!" The blond man said loudly as he tried to catch green-eyed youth's hand and pull him out of the crowd. "Come here, my boy, I wanted to have a word with you for a ling time!" Unfortunately for the new DADA professor, Harry didn't want to talk to him, and, ignoring man's attempts to grab his arm, continued on his way to the greenhouse three. "Wait, Harry, there are some important things I need to discuss with you... You don't mind if I will have him late for a couple of minutes, Pomona?" The scowl on Sprout's face clearly said that she did mind, but Lockhart ignored that and continued trying to fish Harry out of the crowd of his fellow students...

Thankfully for the green-eyed youth, he had reached the doors of the greenhouse and slipped in, into the relative safety from the molesting glory hounds. A loud sound of the bell, that told everyone that the first period has started, served as the final 'protection' from Lockhart for the time being – the man needed to return to the castle for his own lesson to teach...

Professor Sprout stood in the center of the main passage inside the greenhouse, with a trestle bench filled with pots behind her and a box of earmuffs at her feet.

"Welcome back to Hogwarts and to the second year of your Herbology studies." The witch said to her students. "This year we will be studying mandrakes." She continued, while gesturing towards the rows of pots behind her. "Can anyone tell me, what the mandrake is, where we can use it?" The professor asked. Almost instantly Hermione's and Neville's hands went up into the air...

* * *

That's all, folks!  
Leave me a **review**.


	15. DADA and quidditch surprises

Here's the newest chapter for the "_**Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord**_" story for your enjoyment. Sorry for being a bit late with the update - had some trouble with free time because of my magistracy exams.

*** Review response**:  
**obsessivegirl73**,** Thaumologist**, **Evci**, it was fun (though the menu was definitely lacking meat). We were even allowed to shoot from the real anti-tank cannon (rifles and pistols too, of course).  
**kazikamikaze24**, **YoungDarkPegasus**, **Victorules**, **Evil E. Evil**, **Hanzo of the Salamander**, **Penny is wise**, **Still Not Dead Yet**, thank you, folks!  
**Highvalour**, don't forget that Basilius is a spoiled eleven years old child who never had to use slyness before. He will learn, eventually, how a Slytherin should work and live and breathe, but right no... As for Crabbe and Goyle - read the chapter.  
**The Sinful**, I haven't decided about Lockhart. Yet. As for Harry and his rivals - Ron will be one from time to time, as will Basilius. Nott possibly will be the third one (they all will be acting independently). There might be others as well.  
**Reishin Amara**, Draconica will 'report' that herself. In the fourth year...  
**Vukk**, Basilius won't be the king of the hill for long. I promise.

* * *

*** Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "_**Harry Potter**_" and its characters in any shape or form.

"human speech"  
"_wraith speech_"  
'_human thoughts_'  
"_**spells / parseltongue**_"

* * *

_This chapter was not beta-read. Yet.  
Also, please notice that I made a small change to the timetable from the previous chapter. Nothing major, but I still think that you should be informed of this.  
_

* * *

**chapter 15: DADA and quidditch surprises**

Friday came too soon, that was what Harry thought. First thing he had two potions with _professor_ Snape that day, and now he there was Defense Against the Dark Arts with Lockhart... The green-eyed wizard still didn't think that the man was fit to teach. And the classroom did nothing to dissuade the young Potter: on every wall there were various photos of Lockhart – Quirrell, as bad teacher as he was with his constant fake stuttering, at least had pictures related to the subject he taught, not his portraits – and, of course, the new professor himself looked like he was there to show himself off and not teach children.

Once everyone was seated, Lockhart cleared his throat to get everyone's attention. Now, with the classroom silenced, he picked one of his books from Dean Thomas, who happened to be sitting right in front of the teacher's table, and held it up, to show everyone his own, winking portrait on the front cover.

"Me,.." The new DADA professor said, pointing at his portrait, while winking himself. "Gilderoy Lockhart, Order of Merlin third class, honorary member of the Dark Force Defense League, and five-time winner of Witch Weekly's Most Charming-Smile Award – but I don't talk about that. I didn't get rid of the Bandon Banshee by smiling at her!" Only few students smiled weakly at the man's joke. "I see you've all bought a complete set of my books – well done. But we will start today with a little quiz – nothing to worry about, just to check how well you've read the books..." With that Lockhart started handing out the test papers. With his hands, not magic. "You have thirty minutes. Start... now."

Harry turned his paper and the questions... All fifty four were about Lockhart, and none was about what could be taught as Defense... if there even was such a thing in the books... Still, the green-eyed Gryffindor tried to answer some questions – he didn't want the _professor_ to pay him more attention than the man was already.

Half an hour later, Lockhart collected the test papers, again, not using magic, and riffled through them in front of the class, commenting from time to time on what he saw... As it turned out, only Hermione answered all questions correctly, thus, earning Gryffindor ten points.

Done with the tests, the man put them away into his table and then placed a large covered cage – it was hidden behind the table up to now – onto the tabletop.

"Now – be warned! It is my job to arm you against the foulest creatures known to wizardkind! You

may find yourselves facing your worst fears in this room. Know only that no harm can befall you whilst I am here. All I ask is that you remain calm." Many students, mostly Gryffindors, leaned forward, interested in what could be in the cage. "I must ask you not to scream," said Lockhart in a low voice. "It might provoke them." As the most of the class held its breath, Lockhart whipped off the cover. "Yes,.." he said dramatically. "Freshly caught Cornish pixies. " Seamus Finnigan couldn't control himself. He let out a snort of laughter that even Lockhart couldn't mistake for a scream of terror. "Yes?" The DADA professor smiled at Seamus.

"Well, they're not – they're not very – dangerous, are they?" Seamus choked.

"Don't be so sure!" said Lockhart, waggling a finger annoyingly at Seamus. "Devilish tricky little blighters they can be!" Indeed, pixies were tricky little creatures and they also had poisonous little fangs, but you needed to be bitten dozens times to start feeling the effects of the poison. So all in all, they weren't dangerous... Unless you were Lockhart. "Right, then,.." The blond _professor_ said loudly. "Let's see what you make of them!" And he opened the cage...

It was pandemonium. The pixies shot in every direction like rockets. Several shot straight through the window, showering the back row with broken glass. The rest proceeded to wreck the classroom more effectively than a rampaging rhino. They grabbed ink bottles and sprayed the class with them, shredded books and papers, tore pictures from the walls, up-ended the waste basket, grabbed bags and books and threw them out of the smashed window. Within a couple of minutes the whole class was hiding under the desks...

"Come on now – round them up, round them up, they're only pixies!" Lockhart shouted. He rolled up his sleeves, brandished his wand, and bellowed, "_**Peskipiksi Pesternomi!**_" It had absolutely no effect on the little beasts. Instead one of them seized his wand and threw it out of the window, too. Lockhart gulped and dived under his own desk, and then made a run to his private office, when the pixies picked another victim to torment.

Seeing that their professor fled with his tail between his legs, Harry knew that dealing with the pixies was now their task. But what could they do? Even with his self-study, he didn't have any spells that could be used against the little beasts. Or did he? He remembered from somewhere that pixies and their cousins doxies relied a lot on their hearing, so this was something he could use... Hoping for the better, the young Potter created a loud banging sound, causing pixies to stop their current mischief and head towards the source of the sound – him... He was saved from being attacked by another bang, coming from the opposite side of the classroom: apparently Draconica had understood how loud sounds could be used in the situation... Well, Hermione had understood that too, the green-eyed wizard was sure, but she was sitting too close to him to be able to use this.

When the pixies got close to the blond, Harry used his wand to create another bang, causing the pixies to return their attention onto him. Meanwhile, the students started getting from under the desks, and many of them started attacking the pests with random spells they had learned during Quirrell's lessons, or, like Crabbe and Goyle, simply using Lockhart's books to hit them hard...

Eventually, all pixies were neutralized and locked in the cage. And as soon as the students were done with the pests, Lockhart returned into the classroom, looking as narcissistic as always, and was about to say something – mostly likely something along the lines how well they applied the spell he had showed them – but the ball rang, saving the students from whatever the blond man had 'planned' next...

**~/ *** \~**

The Saturday for Harry didn't start much better than the Friday afternoon ended: Oliver Wood was the reason. The quidditch fanatic decided that the team should start training for the season as soon as possible – at six in the morning on the first day of the first weekend of the school year. And last till lunch... At very least he had the elves of the castle bring some food and drinks for the team, when they were having a half an hour long break in the training session...

As the team was returning to the castle for some (late) lunch after a tiresome seven hours long training session, where Wood had them doing just basics all over again, they passed by another team, heading to the pitch. The Slytherin team to be exact, and they had a new player among them (and brand new Nimbus 2001 brooms for everyone, which was probably the reason for the new player being there). And the said player was exactly what got Harry's attention: it was Draconica. He looked into her eyes, as if asking a silent question of what she was doing there as he had never seen her as someone who was even remotely interested in the game... The blond witch looked back at him, telling him with just her eyes that she would answer his unspoken question later.

**~/ *** \~**

Monday's DADA were just as bad as the Friday one was: after the pixie incident, Lockhart decided that they will be role-playing the scenes from his books - "Year with the Yeti" for today... At least Harry managed not to end as the one, whom the _professor_ had _assisting_ him, and he was very thankful for that.

Sometime in the middle of the second DADA lesson, Harry was trying to look like he was at least somewhat interested in whatever Lockhart was playing up while reading the normal defense textbook – hidden from _professors_ view by a stack of his novels – a paper plane suddenly landed on his table. Quickly picking the plane up, the young Gryffindor unfolded it and read the message:

_Meet me in the library tonight at six, and bring your friends with you as well: there are things needed to be discussed._

The message wasn't signed, but Harry had no doubts about who sent it to him: it was both Slytherin-ish in its style and written in muggle pen. Draconica was the only one who could have sent it... Folding the letter, the green-eyed wizard put in into the inner pocket of his school robe and returned to reading the Defense textbook: he will 'organize' the requested meeting later.

**~/ *** \~**

A little before six in the evening, Harry, Hermione and Neville entered the library, and they weren't surprised to find that the blond Slytherin witch was already there, sitting in the far corner of the reading room with an unidentified book – there was no title on the cover – in front of her.

"Longbottom, Potter, Granger." Draconica greeted them as they approached her table. "As you might have guessed, I asked you to come here, because, to be frank, our Defense professor is useless..." Harry had an idea that whatever the Slytherin witch wanted to talk about was related to DADA, but he hadn't shared this with his friends as this was a mere guess... Still, all three Gryffindors nodded. Even if Hermione was arguing that Lockhart was a great mage to accomplish all the things he wrote about. "And with professor Quirrell barely teaching us anything the previous year, we will need to do a lot self-studying if we want to successfully pass our DADA exam for OWLs."

"Yeah, we already needed to study Defense on our own the previous year to get A's." Harry said, with Neville agreeing with him and Hermione being hesitant as she still had some of her 'adults in power are always right' philosophy rooted in her mind.

"So, what I propose is that we organize some kind of a self-study club for those who wish to learn Defense. And since none of us is good enough to teach on his or her own, the club should be working like this: those who have something useful share it with the others." Draconica said. She made a small pause, before adding: "Don't think that I'm proposing this out of the goodness of my heart: should something happen to wizarding Britain, we will need aurors, and if the situation with the DADA doesn't change soon, there will be no wizards and witches qualified for that kind work. Thus, there will be no one to protect us."

"I like the idea, but... will it work?.. with everyone from different houses, I mean." Harry asked while pondering on his ...acquaintance's idea.

"I personally feel that the house rivalry goes a bit too far, as it is. But since not everyone feels like this... it will be their loss. We will be working only with those who wish to work with us." The blond witch replied.

"Well, I'm all for the club: we need to prepare for the life outside Hogwarts' walls on our own, if the school fails to prepare us." Harry said.

"I'm in too." Neville agreed with his friend.

"Me too." Hermione said. No surprise there, since the girl, it seemed, would never miss a chance to learn something.

"Very well. For now we need more members for the club, so ask your housemates and, if you can, Hufflepuffs in our year, if they want to join. I will ask my own house and Ravens." The blond witch said. "There is only half an hour before dinner, so it would be better if you go now: we're supposed to be rivals, and it wouldn't do us any good if we're seen leaving the library together... And I have some reading I need to finish before the library closes tonight." The 'golden trio' nodded and was about to leave, when Draconica stopped their unofficial 'leader'. "Potter, I know that you have some things you want to ask me... You can ask me now." She finished in a much softer tone, compared to the official one she started with. Harry nodded to his friends, telling them to continue without him, and returned to his seat across from his Slytherin friend. But words didn't want to come out of him, so he just sat there... Draconica, meanwhile, continued reading the book, looking up at him from time to time. Finally, after what felt like hours – but in reality was only a couple of minutes – Harry spoke:

"This last Saturday I saw you among the Slytherin quidditch team... I never thought you even like the game..." This wasn't coming out as a question, but Draconica understood perfectly well what he wanted to ask her.

"I never thought like that either." She replied, dropping her mask for a moment to allow a small smile... She didn't understand why she did this, but it didn't felt wrong to show (some) emotions when alone with ...Potter. "But my father decided that I have to earn some more glory to the house Malfoy... At least I was allowed to pick the position I will be playing. I'm a chaser – the safest position out there... So don't be afraid, I'm not after your status of the best seeker around." The Gryffindor wizard chuckled.

"Just don't expect me to tell you the strategies Wood creates for the Gryffindor team..." He replied, catching his acquaintance's attention. "I never remember them myself..." Draconica allowed herself to smile again.

"I wouldn't dream of that: the rumors about us being more then we are might start spreading otherwise." Oh, yes, they still were 'just associates'. "And you should probably return to your friends now, Potter. It's almost dinner time." Nodding, Harry stood up and, after a quick 'see you later' left the reading room...

**~/ *** \~**

Meanwhile, down in the dungeons of the Slytherin house another student was scheming. Theodore Nott wasn't happy with the youngest Malfoy replacing him as the unofficial leader of the Slytherin. The only thing, beside the arrogance, the little brat possessed was politically and economically powerful father: no one in the house wanted to have house Malfoy as their enemy...

Still, Basilius was poor leader and, in Theodore's eyes, would no doubt cause a lot of troubles to the Slytherin with his almost Gryffindor-stupid behavior. No, Slytherin needed someone who had both cunning and political power to be its leader. Someone like him – even if house Nott's political power wasn't that great, compared to other noble houses.

So, the young Nott started thinking of getting his position from the previous year back. And since he couldn't take it directly from Basilius, he would have to have the brat removed by the house. Once the brat will be a threat no more, he would just have to take his place. The fact that he had already being a leader of his year one and had performed this role adequately would only be helping him. All that he needed was to make the Malfoy heir make a fool of himself...

**~/ *** \~**

The next couple of day the 'golden trio' and Draconica spent asking their classmates, whether or not they wished to join _the club_. Of course, they were doing this a bit on the sly, not wanting to get extra attention to what they were doing.

Out of the Gryffindor house only Parvati Patil wanted to join the club – other than the 'golden trio' of course. The other either didn't want to do extra studying or didn't want to spend more time in the same room with the 'slimy Slytherins' than was absolutely necessary.

Hufflepuffs, on the other hand were quite interested in joining _the club_. Other than Ernie Macmillan, who didn't like Harry for some reason, only Justin Finch-Fletchley (he was being lazy) and Zacharias Smith (for the same reason) said that they won't be coming.

From what information Draconica had passed onto her ...associates, Ravenclaws were also very interested in the idea of _the club_ and only one of the 'claws – Michael Corner – decided against joining. Slytherins, much like Gryffindors, though, had only four students who will be the members of _the club_: Tracey Davis, Theodore Nott, Daphne Greengrass and Draconica herself.

Now, with the members of _the club_ known, the four met again; in the library, just several hours before their Astronomy lesson. After some debates, it was decided that _the club_'s meetings will be held there, in the reading room of the library, on Thursdays in the afternoon, starting with the next week. And the name of _the club_ was to be decided during the first meeting. 'The four' just hoped that the idea worked and they and everyone interested in this will get a chance to learn how to defend themselves in this cruel cruel world.

* * *

That's all, folks!  
Leave me a **review**.


	16. The club and the voice

Here's the newest chapter for the "_**Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord**_" story for your enjoyment. Sorry for being a bit late with the update - had some trouble with free time because of my magistracy exams.

*** Review response**:  
**Naginator**, **Aura Knight-Lyrin**, **Penny is wise**, **obsessivegirl73**, **Hanzo of the Salamander**, **RE5 forever**, **Arct1cfox**, **Still Not Dead Yet**, **James018**, **GoldenGod Rah**, thank you, folks!  
**AlsoKnownAsMatt**, no, not really.  
**Highvalour**, wait and see. no spoilers here.  
**The Sinful**, Malfoy's political assassination will happen later, but it will.  
**Victorules**, Draconica is rather stubborn, and since she decided that they are 'just associates' then they are 'just associates', even if she does have some feelings for him (not exactly romantic (yet), but more than 'just associates', even if says otherwise). As for never speaking to each other - they worked together as they studied DADA since the early spring 1992. And even before that, they interacted from time to time... Harry sees Draconica as a friend (almost on the same level as Hermione and Neville) - she was the first magical child his age he met, and she was nice (even if rather cold) to him. And they can relate to each other somewhat, as they both had not perfect childhood. He doesn't have any romantic feelings towards her at this moment, but that doesn't mean he won't in the future

**c0dy88**, here are the characteristics of the Slytherin four as I see them:  
Draconica Malfoy: slightly dark in her magic and politically neutral (and is actually as much a Ravenclaw as she is a Slytherin). She has a sharp mind, but is somewhat stubborn. She also keeps people at arm's length, while only Harry and Daphne, and Tracey to a lesser extent, can be considered her friends (Draconica would deny that, stating that they are 'just associates').  
Daphne Greengrass: moderately dark in her magic and also politically neutral. She isn't as studious as Draconica, but she would do well in the house of ravens as she is very rational and calculating. Much like Draconica, she too keeps people at arm's length, already being named the Ice Queen, and is friends only with Draconica and Tracey.  
Tracey Davis: neutral in her magic and slightly pro-muggle in her political stance (she's half-blood, after all). She's actually a rather cheerful and friendly girl, but since she was sorted into Slytherin, she has to limit herself and play an ice queen. Tracey isn't the most intelligent girl around, but she isn't stupid by any means.  
Theodore Nott: dark in his magic and pro-pureblood in his political stance. Unlike many of the Death Eaters, though, he understands that someone needs to do the dirty works, so exterminating everyone with impure blood is stupid in his opinion. He is average in his intelligence, but he is still cunning, so he accepts knowledge - if it can help him - no matter where it comes from. He also prefers fighting from the shadow, partly because he isn't that powerful magically.

* * *

*** Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "_**Harry Potter**_" and its characters in any shape or form.

"human speech"  
"_wraith speech_"  
'_human thoughts_'  
"_**spells / parseltongue**_"

* * *

_This chapter was not beta-read. Yet.  
_

* * *

**chapter 16: The club and the voice**

Since Lockhart's 'teaching' methods didn't improve the following week – the man still had scenes from his books role-played – the everyone who joined _the club_ were looking forward to Thursday afternoon, when the first meeting will be held... On Thursday morning, during double Transfiguration, even Ravenclaws were waiting somewhat impatiently for the lessons to finish, not something one could see normally. Of course, professor McGonnagal noticed that, but decided to ignore it for some reason.

Even though the first meeting of _the club_ wasn't until three in the afternoon, many of those who were coming were hastily eating their lunches. Harry couldn't understand why: they had an hour and a half, more than enough to eat at a normal pace and have quite some time left... But then again, their restlessness was coming from the fact that they were finally getting some (hopefully) decent instructions for DADA...

The 'golden trio' arrived to the reading room of the Hogwarts library with five minutes to spare, but they actually were the last ones – unless someone else decided to join _the club_ – everyone else was already there, sitting in the groups by school houses or families (in Patil twins' case). Harry, Hermione and Neville took one of the remaining free tables for themselves as they joined the group.

"Now that everyone's here, let us begin." Draconica said. "Potter, if you will." The green-eyed Gryffindor was a bit surprised that his Slytherin friend delegated the leadership to him, but he quickly recovered.

"Um... Well... Welcome to the club for those who wants to learn about how to defend themselves. We are all here, because the level on which DADA is taught seems inadequate to us and, thus, we have to learn what we need on our own." The young Potter said, hoping that he didn't sound too anti-Hogwarts. "The group is going to be working this way: if you have some knowledge you want to share with your classmates, queue up – we won't have a single person that will always play the role of the teacher. But before we start today, we should name our club. Any ideas?"

And the brainstorming began... At some point Kevin Entwhistle offered the 'Self-defense Association of Students' name – SAS for short – causing many of those who were close to their non-magical origins chuckle. There were many other ideas, of course, and, in the end, after more than an hour of debates, _the club_ got its 'official' name as 'Defense Study Group' or DS in abbreviation.

"Very well, let's begin..." Harry said, once the name of the group was approved by the majority of the students present. "If no one has any objections, I will 'lecture' first..." Since no one was against that, the young Potter began: "What I will teach you isn't exactly related to the Defense Against the Dark Arts, but is something I feel everyone must know..." At this point, though, he was interrupted by madam Pince finally deciding to see what the group of students in the reading room was up to.

"What are you lot doing here?" The stern woman asked, a bit surprised to see members of all four houses sitting together and not insulting each other or outright fighting.

"We have a study group here." Several members of the DS chorused in response. The librarian looked at them with some suspicion, but since so far they weren't braking any of the rules – their debates about the group name were held under muffling charms, so they weren't even too loud – she couldn't do anything to them.

"I see." She said to them. "Do follow the rules of the library, or I will have to kick you out." Madam Pince warned them, before returning to her table in the next room... Harry breathed out a sigh of relief: they wouldn't have to relocate the club.

"Oh, well... Where was I? Oh, yeah, what I'm going to teach you is something, I think, everybody must know, even if it is not exactly related to DADA. I'm going to tell you about the first aid techniques, both magical and muggle." There was a murmur among the 'listeners', as some understood why this was important, while others just wanted to learn some offensive, or at very least defensive, magic.

"I kinda understand magical first aid, Potter, but why would we ever need muggle first aid? And what muggles could have that is good enough to learn?" Theodore Nott asked. Harry sighed: he expected that someone would ask something like this, even if he hoped that this wouldn't happen.

"To answer your first question, what if your wand cracks or breaks? You remember what happened to Ronald Weasley's? I personally don't find such wand to be safe enough for giving the first aid, or any other medical treatment. Plus there are poisons and spells that prevents blood clotting – you can bleed to death if you don't know counter spell or have an antidote. While muggle techniques won't stop the bleeding completely, they can slow it down significantly, giving you extra time find a true treatment." The scion of the house Potter explained. Nott nodded slowly, understanding how this knowledge could help. "As for your second question... I will tell you this: muggle and magical worlds are too different to be compared as whole, but as for the areas that are common to both worlds... muggles have much much more knowledge about how human body works, and there some diseases that magical world can't cure at all, while muggle can at least partially... Muggle astronomy too is much more advanced that its magical counterpart... But let's not divert from today's topic." Harry said. "If you don't want to listen to this ...lecture, you can leave, no one will hold it against you." Surprisingly, everyone stayed. "In that case, the first thing I will show you is..."

The 'lecture' lasted for almost two hours, and still covered only the very basics: how to stop bleeding, how to fix broken bones, what to do, if you are poisoned... And, like Harry had said, this wasn't exactly DADA study material, everyone, even Nott, was quick to understand, why the dark-haired boy wanted them to know this.

"...And I'd like to stop here: the dinner will be served soon, and we all need to prepare for the astronomy lesson tonight." Harry said, exiting his lecturing mode. Of course, others contributed a lot too, especially about magical methods of the first aid, but he was the main narrator... The students were now leaving the reading room and heading back to their houses' common rooms, while Harry was packing the books he used to show how the things he was telling about should be done.

"That was very informative, Potter." Draconica, who was leaving among the last, said as she passed by him. "But next time, please, tell us something that can help us in DADA more directly." Despite her choice of words, her tone was saying that she didn't mind much his choice of the topic for today. Harry shrugged: so far he didn't have any ideas about when and what about he will be lecturing next.

"I'll try." Was his reply. The blond witch, though, was already by the door out of the room. She stopped for a moment to show that she had heard him, before continuing on her way to the Slytherin dungeons.

**~/ *** \~**

The next meeting of the DS, again on the Thursday afternoon in the reading room of the Hogwarts library, was led in collaboration by Hermione, Padma and, surprisingly, Daphne. The girls showed their classmates the basic magical shield, _**protego**_, as well as a couple of 'offensive' spell, the disarming charm, _**expelliarmus**_, included. Of course, since they were in the library, they couldn't practice magic, but even the theory given by the three witches was enough: everyone could practice spells later in the common rooms or anywhere else.

A week later, shy oriental Ravenclaw witch named Su Li, urged on by her housemate Padma, showed a couple of relatively harmless, but very annoying and somewhat 'dirty' hexes – even though these were easy to block, if you managed to hit your opponent with one of them, unless he was a master of self-control, you had a great chance of winning...

**~/ *** \~**

On the first weekend of October, the first quidditch match was played. Traditionally, it was Gryffindor versus Slytherin one. The match was unusually long, lasting for more than four hours, and ended with Harry catching the snitch, making the final score five hundreds thirty – one hundred ten in favor of the house of lions.

There was an incident during the match, when the bludgers suddenly decided that the only target for them was one Harry Potter. Once that became obvious, madam Hooch stopped the game, and professors examined the bludgers... Since the magic used on them wasn't cast by anyone from Hogwarts, it was simply dispelled – which, actually, wasn't that easy, even for the headmaster himself – before the match was resumed.

During the match, Draconica scored only once, but six of goal sendings were made by her, and the blond witch was rather content with such results. And, apparently, her opinion about the game changed a little, as it brought out her competitive streak a bit that day. She would never be a true fan of the game, like many males (and several females) were, though.

**~/ *** \~**

The next Monday, Lockhart decided that he had taught his students enough to quiz them, but, of course, the man had all of the questions centered around himself. At least the questions weren't about his favorite color or his dream – they were about his (supposed) accomplishment he had written about.

Of course, with the books being role-played in the classroom, no one had big troubles answering the questions like 'How did Gilderoy Lockhart act when he came face to face with the Himalaya Yeti?' But, the student body still wasn't very thrilled by this test: the blond man had only a small fanbase left in the Hogwarts institution, since everyone who had at least two brain cells had already seen that he wasn't nearly as good as he portrayed himself in his books. Plus no one liked to be quizzed...

This quiz, though, showed those who were willing to see it, that they had wasted entire month of DADA lessons, and hadn't learn anything useful. Unfortunately, those, who saw this were either already in the Defense Study Group, or didn't want to go there because of their prejudiced against the members of other houses...

* * *

Three days later, on the next meeting of the DS, 'professor Susan Bones' explained to her classmates about the ways of avoiding being hit by opponent's spells. Apparently, the niece of the current DMLE head was well versed in defense, even if her knowledge of 'offensive' magic was kind of limited.

"...The magical shields are good and all – they are fast to create, and they will protect you from most magical attacks – but there are curses that can pierce certain types of such shields, and there are at least three curses that cannot be blocked by any known magical shields." Susan lectured. "The other way is to levitate or conjure something in the path of the spell. Conjuration is well beyond what we can do now, but levitation isn't. The downsides of this method is that it takes some time to bring the object where you need it,.. and some curses cause solid objects to explode, so if you don't know what exactly you are attacked with, this method of defense isn't the best one." The redhead continued. "The best way would be dodging, of course, but this requires lightning-fast reflexes a good physical form and enough space to maneuver, plus if your opponent is using area-wide attacks..." That was the idea of Susan's lesson: compare different defensive techniques and point out which is better in which case.

* * *

Since ms. Bones' lecture ended just an hour before the dinner, it was decided that the group should end their meeting for today... After thanking the red-haired Hufflepuff for her lecture, the 'golden trio' headed back to the Gryffindor tower.

'_**Kill... Rip... I want to kill'em...**_' Harry suddenly heard in a muffled hissing whisper. Of course, the young Potter immediately stopped and looked around, hoping that this voice was a hallucination. There was no one in the corridor, aside from him and his friends Unfortunately... '_**I'll rip them...**_' The voice hissed again, but much quieter and from a different place this tome.

"Harry, are you alright?" Hermione asked with concern in her voice as she saw her friend's strange behavior. Neville just nodded, agreeing with the bushy-haired witch: to them, Harry stopping in an empty corridor and looking around, as if he felt hunted, looked strange.

"Did you hear that?" The scion of house Potter asked in response. "There was some voice here... And it wanted to kill someone."

"Harry, mate, I think you are hearing things." Neville said, shaking his head.

"Harry, I think you've worked too much these recent days with all of your extra studies. You should relax more." Hermione added, though it didn't sound very convincing: the girl spent much more time studying than he did. "I will talk with Wood, so that you don't have to go to your quidditch training this Saturday."

"No, no, I'm fine!" The young Potter replied quickly: he didn't need anyone else knowing that he was hearing things. And he also knew that arguing with her was often useless... "I promise, I will repose more, Hermione." The bushy-haired witch shrugged. She would have dragged him to the hospital wing for a check up, but knowing how much her friend disliked hospitals this wasn't going to happen without extensive use of magic...

* * *

For the next several days Harry was trying to find the source of that mysterious voice, even if he didn't wander around the castle – he simply tried to listen to every sound in the castle he heard. But there was no luck, as whatever he had heard that day never appeared again. In the end, the young Potter decided that what he had heard that afternoon was indeed a hallucination and nothing more...

* * *

That's all, folks!  
Leave me a **review**.


	17. The writing on the wall

Here's the newest chapter for the "_**Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord**_", enjoy! This chapter is also a bit bigger than normal, to make up for the last one. =)

*** Review response**:  
**obsessivegirl73**, thanks and no, I didn't.  
**Naginator**, **Highvalour**, **kazikamikaze24**, **Lupinesence**, **GoldenGod Rah**, **Penny is wise**, **Hanzo of the Salamander**, **gsteemso**, thank you, folks!  
**c0dy88**, thanks for noticing the errors. =)  
**Aura Knight-Lyrin**, well, he is 12.  
**CrimsontheBloodyDemonKing**, Harry is already suspicious of that, but the charms will be there for some more time.  
**Victorules**, "Ronin" will be updated later today.  
**Still Not Dead Yet**, do understand me right, Draconica is very capable in dark arts (theoretically - she is 12 (too)), but she is also quite good with 'light' arts and, actually, uses both almost equally in 'daily life', which is why she is lighter version of Daphne

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*** Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "_**Harry Potter**_" and its characters in any shape or form.

"human speech"  
"_wraith speech_"  
'_human thoughts_'  
"_**spells / parseltongue**_"

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_This chapter was not beta-read. Yet.  
_

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**chapter 17: The writing on the wall**

October was coming to an end, spreading damn chill over the Hogwarts, and the rains were thundering against the castle's windows for days on end, causing the Black lake to rise to start flooding the grounds nearby... Students too were affected by the rain, as a lot of them were now busying madam Pomfrey with the spate of colds and general dampened mood...

A week before Halloween, Hagrid invited the 'golden trio' to see the pumpkins he had grown for the holiday. Finding a moment when it wasn't raining, Harry, Neville and Hermione slipped onto the Hogwarts' grounds to visit their half-giant friend... The pumpkins, indeed, were incredible, each the size of a garden shed, but the trio had some suspicions that some enlargement charms were used on them.

The rain started again and the trio, who made a mistake of not taking an umbrella with them, had to retreat to Hugrid's hut. Now they were having some tea, waiting for the rain to stop or at least not to rain pitchforks, while discussing various foods they were eating at Hogwarts.

"Did anyone notice that we have been having chicken a lot more often recently?" Neville asked, and his friends, after thinking for a moment, agreed with him. Hagrid looked uneasy for a couple of seconds, before replying.

"Someone 'as started killing the roosters at 'ogwarts." The giant man said. "I'd say that it's either foxes or a blood-sucking bugbear... Headmaster said dat 'e will 'ave professor Flitwick put some charms to protect the rest,.." The trio looked at each other: something was killing the roosters at Hogwarts? "But 'nuf about dat. Are you three looking forward ter pumpkin pies dis Halloween?" The half-giant asked, trying to change the subject.

"Those are always the greatest!" The scion of house Longbottom exclaimed, deciding that they shouldn't question Hagrid about this, lest any other _facts_ surface.

"Yeah, but I don't know whether I want to go to the feast..." Harry added. The half-giant looked at him questioningly.

"And why is that, 'arry?" Then he remembered why. "Sorry, forgot about dat." The Hogwarts groundskeeper then looked at the clock on the wall of his hut. It was almost four in the evening. "You should be returning to the castle." He said, while getting an umbrella – not his pink one, but a much larger dark-gray one. "I will bring you to the front door."

Mysterious voice that only he could hear, someone – he didn't believe that it was an animals' doing – killing roosters... Harry hoped that whatever was happening at Hogwarts this year would go around him: he had already faced enough dangers for a lifetime and didn't need or want any more...

**~/ *** \~**

On Sunday Harry, and the rest of the Gryffindor quidditch team had a training, despite the awful rain and cold wind: Oliver Wood, being his normal overly-enthusiastic self, decided that bad weather wasn't a reason to cancel the training session. At least they finished earlier today... While the team was showing their captain how much they _enjoyed_ flying through the rainstorm, the young Potter, who didn't want to be a part of murder case, quickly returned to the castle.

As he was walking back to the Gryffindor tower, in one of the corridors he came across Nearly Headless Nick, who was staring morosely out of the window and muttering something under his breath.

"...Don't fulfill their requirements... half an inch, if that..." Harry heard as he approached the ghost. But sir Nicolas heard him approaching and, folding a transparent letter, turned around. "You don't look happy, young Potter." The Gryffindor ghost commented. The green-eyed boy's clothes and the broomstick were enough to guess why he appeared so gloomy.

"Hello, Nick. You don't appear happy either." Harry replied.

"Ah," Nearly Headless Nick waved an elegant hand, "a matter of no importance... It's not as though I really wanted to join... Thought I'd apply, but apparently I 'don't fulfill requirements'." In spite of his airy tone, there was a look of great bitterness on his face. Then the ghost sighed and retold a shortened version of the story of his beheading – with Harry making sounds of agreement in the right places – before reading out aloud the part of the letter about 'not fulfilling requirements' and ranting a little more about his decapitation...

"Well, there is something that they don't have that makes you special, sir Nickolas." The young Potter said, deciding that he needed to raise the ghost's spirit.

"Half an inch of skin and sinew that holds my neck on?" Nearly Headless Nick asked. Harry shook his head, making his ghostly companion look at him with some interest.

"No. They might not let you join their hunts, but... How many of them can claim that they personally are kind of a symbol of a thousand years old school?" The green-eyed wizard replied. Sir Nickolas thought about this for a second, before smiling a bit.

"You are right, young Potter, you are right. Thank you." Forgetting about his status of a ghost, Nick tried to shook Harry's hand, but only managed to make the boy feel chill as he passed through him. The ghost than apologized for this mishap. "Hmm... This Halloween will be my five hundredth deathday. I'm holding a party at one of the roomier dungeons; friends of mine from all over the country will be there... You are welcome to attend, young Potter. Your friends are welcome too..."

"I''d be happy to attend your deathday party..." Harry replied, trying to sound as politely as he could. "But would living humans be OK with the rest of your guests?" Nearly Headless Nick looked thoughtful for a moment.

"Yes, you are right. I didn't think about this. If sir Patrick and his headless hunters will come, there might be a discomfiture... But if still you want to come, you are, of course, welcome." Harry nodded appreciatively.

"Thank you, sir Nickolas." Then the young wizard looked down at his clothes. Those were still a bit wet, despite the drying charms he had cast on them when he entered the castle. "If you would excuse me, I'd like to get back to the tower and change into something dry, before I catch cold." The ghost nodded.

"Of course, young Potter, I shouldn't delay you any longer." Nodding a thank you to Nearly Headless Nick, Harry continued on his way to the Gryffindor dormitories...

**~/ *** \~**

As Halloween was approaching, the feeling that something bad will happen on that day grew stronger within Harry. Of course, Hermione and Neville were saying that this was stupid and bad things don't always happen (to him) on Halloween, but that didn't help the green-eyed youth much. But they at least agreed that the deathday party wasn't a place for a living human to be, no matter how much Hermione wanted to go there, curios about the event...

Finally, October 31st arrived, and everyone was anticipating the glorious Halloween feast that evening. The Great Hall and many other public places, save for the library, had been decorated with the usual live bats; Hagrid's vast pumpkins had been carved into lanterns large enough for three men to sit in, and there were rumors that Dumbledore had booked a troupe of dancing skeletons for the entertainment...

Soon, sooner than he would have liked, as he still had the feeling that something bad would happen tonight, Harry found himself among his housemates, sitting at the Gryffindor table and listening to the headmaster's pre-feast speech... After a couple of minutes, Dumbledore finished his speech and the feast started.

The rumors about the dancing skeletons were proven correct, as next to the professors' table there were three wizards in black cloaks with hoods, that were controlling a group of 'skeletons' with their wands, making them play various tunes – at least their playlist was good, and not something like fingernails scraping a blackboard...

And the feast itself was great, possibly even better than the one at the beginning of the school year; the dishes were piled with food of any kind, though the pumpkin-related things were the dominating theme, of course... As Harry ate the delicious meal, the feeling that he had for last several days dulled a bit, but never disappeared...

The feast came to an end, and the students started leaving the Great hall as they were returning to the dormitories. The 'golden trio' was walking among the firsts of their house, but still behind most of the student body, so when the groups in front of them suddenly stopped, they had a hard time seeing the reason for that. Still, Harry, Neville and Hermione managed to push through most of the crowd, to see, what caused this pandemonium: the floor was flooded there and the wall next to girls' toilet (which was rarely used because of the ghost – moaning Myrtle – haunting it) had foot-high words daubed on it in red, blood-like paint that shimmered in the lights of many torches.

"The chamber of Secrets has been opened. Enemies of the heir, beware." Hermione read out quietly. "Is this Chamber of Secrets even real? 'Hogwarts: a history' has nothing but a legend about it, I'm sure about that." Her to friends only shrugged: they knew nothing about this chamber as well... While they were thinking about what this Chamber of Secrets is, Basilius Malfoy pushed to the front of the cround.

"Enemies of the heir, beware!" He read out loudly, and in such a voice that one could think he was reading a paper proclaiming him the reincarnation of Merlin. "You'll be next, mudbloods! Hogwarts will finally be cleansed of your filth!" He added just as loudly; his cold eyes alive and his normally pale face flushed. Then the youngest Malfoy saw something and grinned even more... Following his line of sight, everyone saw saw an immobile cat that belonged to Argus Filch, hanging by its tail on one of the torches. Using his wand to levitate the poor creature down, Basilius 'studied' it, his face looking like that was a pile dung and not a cat. "Dead. Killed by the heir." He made his verdict. "Everyone, see this: this is what will happen to those who aren't of pure blood!" Several of the less intelligent pureblood supremacist booed in agreement... The school caretaker was now heard approaching in his flat-footed run, and the Malfoy heir decided that being caught with the cat held by his magic wouldn't do him any good... He quickly found his victim in the crowd. "This filth should complement your own dirtied blood... Potter, catch!" And he made the cat fly towards the green-eyed Gryffindor wizard... Thanks to his seeker reflexes, Harry caught the cat without even thinking. And while he was pondering on what to do with it, he suddenly felt a strong one-handed grip on his neck.

"You killed my cat! You've murdered her!" Argus Filch screeched as he lifted the young Potter into the air by his neck. "I'll kill you! I'll..." Seeing that the man was going to kill her friend for real, Hermione tried to save Harry.

"B-but... He didn't... He didn't do anything to your cat..." The caretaker looked at the bookish girl.

"Trying to cover your accomplice, are we? I'll kill you too! I'll have your head for what you did to my Mrs Norris..." Filch continued screeching, enjoying the look of horror on Hermione's face – and he still had Harry in the air with his hand on boy's neck...

"But they really didn't do anything to your cat, mr. Filch!" Neville came forward to protect his friends. The caretaker slowly turned his head to look at him.

"And you too? You too helped murder my cat? I'll... I'll... I'll have you hanged in the Great hall! You will make a good example of what happens to those who commit crimes against the school!" Argus Filch continued screeching... Thankfully for Harry, the professors, led by Dumbledore himself, arrived to the scene.

"Argus!" The ancient headmaster said, his voice radiating power. Filch made a face like the Christmas was canceled, but let Harry go... The young Potter fell on the floor, coughing and breathing hungrily, while nursing his neck... Dumbledore walked up to the green-eyed boy and picked the cat up, before casting a charm to help Harry's neck a little.

"Come with me, Argus." He said to Filch. "Mr. Potter, you too." The scion of house Potter wanted to ask why him, but he still was in no condition to do so... Meanwhile, Lockhart stepped forward eagerly.

"My office is the nearest, headmaster – just upstairs – please, feel free to use it." Dumbledore nodded and headed there; Lockhart, looking exited and important, hurried after him; so did professors McGonnagal and Snape and Filch. Harry forced himself to stand up and headed after the adults. Hermione and Neville tried to follow their friend, but were stopped by Percy the prefect... The crowd, seeing no more source of entertainment there, started dissipating.

* * *

After Lockhart lit the candles on his desk, lighting his previously darkened office, Dumbledore lay Mrs. Norris on the polished surface and began to examine her. The tip of his long, crooked nose was barely an inch from Mrs. Norris's fur. He was looking at her closely through his half-moon spectacles, his long fingers gently prodding and poking. Professor McGonnagal was bent almost as close, her eyes narrowed. Snape loomed behind them, half in shadow, wearing a most peculiar expression: It was as though he was trying hard not to smile. And Lockhart was hovering around all of them, making suggestions.

"It was definitely a curse that killed her – probably the Transmogrifian Torture – I've seen it used many times, so unlucky I wasn't there, I know the very counter-curse that would have saved her..." Lockhart's comments were punctuated by Filch's dry, racking sobs: the caretaker was slumped in a chair by the desk, unable to look at Mrs. Norris, his face in his hands. Much as he detested Filch, Harry, who had mostly recovered by now, couldn't help feeling a bit sorry for him... At last Dumbledore straightened up.

"She's not dead, Argus," The headmaster said softly. Lockhart stopped abruptly in the middle of counting the number of murders he had prevented.

"Not dead?" Choked Filch, looking through his fingers at Mrs. Norris. "But why's she all... all stiff and frozen?" Ha asked.

"She has been Petrified. But how, I cannot say..." Dumbledore said, while the (useless) DADA professor was exclaiming that it was just how he thought.

"Ask him!" shrieked Filch, turning his blotched and tear-stained face to Harry.

"No second year could have done this," The ancient man said firmly. "It would take Dark Magic of the most advanced..." The Hogwarts caretaker, though, didn't believe him.

"He did it, he did it!" Filch spat, his pouchy face turning purple. "You saw what he wrote on the wall! He and his little friends of..." Professor McGonnagal coughed, 'telling' Filch to shut up and don't accuse her lions of things they didn't do.

"I willing to swear an oath that neither myself, nor ms. Granger or mr. Longbottom did anything to your cat. Or wrote anything on the wall." The scion of house Potter said as firmly as he could in his current condition. Dumbledore shook his head.

"There is no need for that, Harry. As I said, no second year, not even as knowledgeable as ms. Granger, could have have done this." The green-eyed wizard allowed himself to sigh in relief.

"But my cat has been Petrified!" Filch shrieked, his eyes popping. "I want to see some punishments!" He paused for a moment to take a breath. "And this brat was the one who had my Mrs. Norris!" The headmaster shook his head.

"I know that mr. Potter didn't do this and was merely a victim of circumstances. I won't punish my students for what they didn't do." Filch grunted in displeasure: the man wanted someone – _anyone_ – to be punished in the most gruesome way for what happened to his Precious. "We will be able to cure her, Argus." Dumbledore said patiently. "Professor Sprout recently managed to procure some Mandrakes. As soon as they have reached their full size, I will have a potion made that will revive Mrs. Norris." The Hogwarts caretaker nodded slowly, obviously wishing for the potion to be ready as soon as possible.

"I'll make it!" Lockhart butted in. "I must have done it a hundred times. I could whip up a Mandrake Restorative Draught in my sleep and..."

"Excuse me..." said Snape icily. "But I believe I am the Potions master at this school." There was a very awkward pause. Dumbledore coughed.

"Harry, you may go." He said... The young Potter nodded and quickly – but not running – left Lockhart's office and headed beck to the Gryffindor tower: the investigation of what happened to Filch's cat took a couple of hours, and it was already past curfew. The last thing he needed right now was getting a detention for being out late...

**~/ *** \~**

Theodore Nott was pacing in his room in the Slytherin dungeons: he had had an almost foolproof plan to remove the Malfoy brat from his position of the 'leader'... But the appearance of this mysterious heir of Slytherin destroyed this plan completely: Basilius managed to get a lot of extra support with his stupid ideas of removing anyone that didn't have pure blood – someone of a lower status was needed to do the dirty work, but it seemed that only few understood this.

And so Theodore was thinking of another way, the one that took the appearance of the Slytherin heir in account, to give him the leadership back... In the end, when it was nearly one in the morning, the young Nott created new plan. It would take a lot of time and work to remove the support Malfoy heir had right now, but the older boy was sure that he would succeed...

**~/ *** \~**

For a few days, the school could talk of little else but the recent attack on Mrs. Norris. Filch kept it fresh in everyone's minds by pacing the spot where she had been attacked, as though he thought the attacker might come back... Many students, Harry included, had seen the caretaker scrubbing the Slytherin heir's message on the wall with 'Mrs. Skower's All-Purpose Magical Mess Remover', but to no effect; the words still gleamed as brightly as ever on the stone.

When Filch wasn't guarding the scene of the crime, he was skulking red-eyed through the corridors, lunging out at unsuspecting students and trying to put them in detention for things like 'breathing too loudly' and 'looking happy'...

Many students, the younger ones especially, were disturbed by the fact that someone dark and powerful enough to cast petrifying curse was in the castle. Among the Gryffindor students Ron's younger sister, Ginny Weasley, was worried the most about what had happened to Mrs. Norris: the girl was a great cat lover. Her brothers and classmates were trying to calm the young witch done, all with different levels of success (or, like Ron with this tactless jokes, made the situation worse).

Hermione Granger was also affected by the heir's message, but in a different way: the bushy-haired girl, it seemed, made it her personal mission to read all books in the library that had anything on the history of Hogwarts, and learn as much as possible about this Chamber of Secrets... Unfortunately, she couldn't find much. Other than the legend from the 'Hogwarts: a history', retold in different variations in several books, the only thing she had found was the rumor that the Chamber of Secrets supposedly had been opened half a century ago. But trying to learn more about that yielded no results. The Chamber of Secrets was still a secret...

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That's all, folks!  
Leave me a **review**.


	18. Attacks

Here's the newest chapter for the "_**Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord**_", enjoy!

*** Review response**:  
**Naginator**, **Highvalour**, **Aura Knight-Lyrin**, **obsessivegirl73**, **Penny is wise**, **god of all**, **Victorules**, **Hanzo of the Salamander**, thanks, folks!  
**The Sinful**, interesting idea. I love it.  
**Elfwyn**, how? because author said so! same with JKR: she needed a bad squib, she wrote one. =)  
**Still Not Dead Yet**, oh well... maybe, or maybe not. time will tell.  
**RE5 forever**, I do have an idea (another HP/OC story), but so far I have enough epics to write - no new ones till I finish at least one of the current.

* * *

*** Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "_**Harry Potter**_" and its characters in any shape or form.

"human speech"  
"_wraith speech_"  
'_human thoughts_'  
"_**spells / parseltongue**_"

* * *

_This chapter was not beta-read. Yet._

Also, before you comment the first part of this chapter: I myself don't like it, I had to rewrite it four times, and I still don't like it... So bear with it and try thinking that there's nothing wrong with it.

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**chapter 18: Attacks**

It was the Friday after the Halloween, and the second year Gryffindors and Slytherins were working on swelling solution during their Potions hours. Harry like they usually did, was working with Neville – the scion of house Longbottom was good at preparing the ingredients, but seemed to be unable to mix them in the potion properly for some reason... The young Potter turned to partner to pick the next ingredient for their potion, and when turned back to his cauldron, he saw that their solution had changed color for some reason and started boiling away, while the cauldron was shaking slightly. Not a good sign, not good at all...

"_**Protego!**_" Harry shouted, while pushing Neville out of his seat. Just in time as their not yet finished potion exploded out of the cauldron, strangely enough, only towards the green-eyed boy (and he was not standing over it!)... Normally, the shielding spell Harry used was very bad at blocking physical attacks, but since the potions are magical substances, it worked pretty well to prevent him being covered in god knows what from head to toe.

"Potter!" Of course, the potions professor was there, ready to make the lives of the Gryffindor students more difficult than it was. "Twenty points from Gryffindor for being unable to brew the simplest swelling solu-..." Professor Snape couldn't finish the sentence as six cauldrons with potions in different states of readiness rose into the air and aimed themselves at the young Potter, before splashing their contents towards the boy. Since _**protego**_ couldn't block attacks from all sides simultaneously, Harry had to duck under the desk while still having the shield active to avoid the liquids and not-so-liquids that were flying towards him...

While he somehow managed to avoid being hit, the mixture of potions that now was on top of his work table proved to be quite acidic, as it started eating through the aged desk at an alarming pace. And Snape was surprised by what was happening in his classroom – even though his face didn't show this – and didn't even think of vanishing the dangerous mixture. Or maybe he did think, but decided against it...

Anyway, by the time Harry, who was trying to avoid the growing puddles of potion mixtures on the floor, had realized that the hissing sound above his head was due to the acidic mixture eating through the desk, it was already late: the first drops already landed on his right shoulder, eating through the fabric of his robes in a second...

"A-ah!" The green-eyed boy screamed as his body was attacked by the acid. Instinctively rolling backwards to avoid the danger, Harry actually got hit in four more places – thankfully, all of those were on his chest and stomach, where he could deal with the burns to come himself, if the worst come about. And since the _professor_ was yet to do anything to help him... But, as only so much of the acid landed on him, it ended quickly and saved Harry from doing a risky move of trying to wash it away with water or neutralizing it with some basic substances. It still left some nasty chemical burns, though. Hopefully, madam Pomfrey would be able to heal him really quickly...

Unfortunately, as the young Potter was concerned about his own health, he forgot that the acidic mixture was eating through the desk... And it had destroyed enough of it for it to break into two, and one of these two pieces hit him on his head as it collapsed, knocking the young Gryffindor out.

As the whole event come to an end, _professor_ Snape decided that it was time for him to act. And no matter how much he would love to take more points from the boy for trying to get even more attention to his person by this, it was obvious that it wasn't done by the boy. And since he didn't do anything to help the boy in the first place, he had already dug his metaphorical grave... Albus Dumbledore was a very powerful political figure, but there was a limit of what he could do, and the greasy-haired professor had ignored his duties to the school and its students enough as it is.

"Longbottom!" Snape ordered. "Take Potter to the hospital wing." While Neville busied himself with the task, the potions professor continued. "Is there anyone else, who need medical attention?" Tracey raised her hand: her cauldron was one of those used in the 'attack', and once it had splashed its contents away, it fell down on her foot. "You can go to the infirmary too." Nodding, the girl quickly collected her things and limped out of the classroom. "Class, dismissed. Next week you all will be redoing the swelling solution. Be prepared as I won't tolerate any dunderheads in my classroom!" That done, Snape headed to his office to floo to the headmaster.

**~/ *** \~**

"Albus, we have a problem!" Severus Snape as he entered the headmaster's office via the inter-school floo connection. "A student was attacked during my double with the second years today." Dumbledore looked up from whatever paperwork he was doing.

"Severus, my boy, you sound like someone tried to assassinate your student! Surely, the children can be handful at times, and often hurt each other over simple things, but I don't think that they would do that with the intent to kill." The ancient headmaster replied.

"You don't understand!" It was rare for Severus to raise his voice. And he was now shouting at the only man that had saved him from Azkaban years ago... "Someone tried to _kill_ a student in my classroom. Normally incomplete swelling solution isn't that dangerous, but when many such potions with various mistakes mix together... They created a strong acid, Albus! Madam Pomfrey will inform you of the exact amount of the damage done later, but I can tell that there will be chemical burns, third degree. You as well as I should know that those aren't easy to heal even with magic!" Potions professor took a deep breath to calm down a bit. "What is worse, I do not know who was behind the attack. I scanned the minds of everyone in the room, and none of them had done this!" Dumbledore merely nodded: he would have to look into what had happened and try to keep it all under the rug. Though with lady Longbottom becoming a more active member of the Board of Governors it wouldn't be that easy...

"Just one question, Severus, who was attacked?" Snape answered only after a couple of seconds...

"Harry Potter."

**~/ *** \~**

It took madam Pomfrey about an hour to finish with the burns Harry had received, but even if his body no longer showed visible signs of what happened in the Potions today, the young Potter still felt pain in places where the acidic mixture came in contact with his skin. As such, the medi-witch decided that he had to spend the night in the hospital wing, in case something happened to him...

It was about midnight, when Harry was woken up by a squeaky voice that unmistakeably belonged to a house elf... Opening his eyes, the green-eyed wizard found himself face to face with Dobby. It must have been Dobby, as Harry knew only him and a couple of house elves here, at Hogwarts, and those wore much better 'clothes' with school crest on them.

"Harry Potter came back to Hogwarts!" The house elf whispered miserably. "Harry Potter lied to Dobby and returned to school! Why didn't Harry Potter heed Dobby's warning? Why didn't Harry Potter return home, when he couldn't go through the barrier?" The young Gryffindor raised an eyebrow: this elf was obviously crazy as he tampered with the barrier at platform 9¾. "Why didn't Harry Potter leave school when blu-bludgers attacked him?.. Why didn't Harry Potter heed the warning and return home? Dobby be forced to use potions on..."

"So it was you?" Harry hissed. The house elf took a step back, despite being used to threats on his life. "It was you who tried to kill me! If only..."

"Dobby not be trying to kill great Harry Potter." The house elf said, while using his hands to 'protect' himself – heavily bandaged hands, as the young Gryffindor noted absentmindedly. "Dobby be thinking that if he showed great Harry Potter how dangerous it is at Hogwarts, Harry Potter would leave before the monster from the... from the Chamber of Secrets gets to him..." This cooled the green-eyed youth a bit. Only a bit. He was still angry as hell that the house elf almost killed him with the 'potions incident'. Harry was about to yell at the elf, but he suddenly heard some people approaching the hospital wing, while whispering lowly. Dobby had heard them as well and, not wanting to be discovered, disappeared.

Next moment, Dumbledore was backing into the ward, wearing a long woolly dressing gown and a nightcap. He was carrying one end of what looked like a statue. Professor McGonnagal appeared a second later, carrying its feet. Together, they heaved it onto a bed.

"Get Madam Pomfrey." Whispered Dumbledore, and Professor McGonnagal hurried past the end of Harry's bed out of sight. Harry lay quite still, pretending to be asleep. He heard urgent voices, and then Professor McGonnagal swept back into view, closely followed by Madam Pomfrey, who was pulling a cardigan on over her nightdress. He heard a sharp intake of breath.

"What happened?" Madam Pomfrey whispered to Dumbledore, bending over the statue on the bed.

"Another attack," The ancient headmaster said. "Minerva found him on the stairs."

"I found a bunch of grapes next to him," said Professor McGonnagal. "We think he was trying to sneak up here to visit mr. Potter." Careful not to alert adults about him being awake, the green-eyed Gryffindor raised himself, trying to see, who was attacked. It was Colin Creevey. The boy's eyes were wide and his hands were stuck up in front of him, holding his camera.

"Petrified?" Asked Madam Pomfrey in a whisper.

"Yes," Replied Professor McGonnagal. "But I shudder to think... If Albus hadn't been on the way downstairs for hot chocolate – who knows what might have..." The three of them stared down at Colin. Then Dumbledore leaned forward and wrenched the camera out of Colin's rigid grip. "You don't think he managed to get a picture of his attacker?" Professor McGonnagal asked eagerly. Dumbledore didn't answer. He opened the back of the camera instead.

"Good gracious!" Said Madam Pomfrey, rather loudly, as a jet of purplish steam had hissed out of the camera. Harry, three beds away, caught the acrid smell of burnt plastic. "Melted, all melted..." She said wonderingly.

"What does this mean, Albus?" Professor McGonnagal asked urgently.

"It means," Dumbledore said after a moment of silence "That the Chamber of Secrets is indeed open again." Madam Pomfrey clapped a hand to her mouth. Professor McGonnagal stared at Dumbledore.

"But, Albus... surely... who?"

"The question is not who," The ancient man said, his eyes on Colin. "The question is, how..."

* * *

The following morning madam Pomfrey deemed Harry to be healthy enough to leave her care, though, she _reco__mmended_ that he didn't do anything straining with his right arm (his right shoulder had the most severe chemical burns) for another day or two...

When he was leaving the hospital wing, the young Potter noticed that there now was a screen around Colin's bed, preventing anyone from seeing the petrified boy. Stopping next to the screen, Harry silently wished for the mandrakes to be ready soon, so that his housemate would be revived as soon as possible. Then the green-eyed youth headed to the Great hall for some late breakfast. After that, he had to have a serious talk with a certain blond witch about house elves and what they did in their free time...

By the time he had reached the library, Harry had heard so many different versions of what happened to Colin Creevy, that it seemed that each student thought up at least two of those. And one was just as ridiculous as the other... Just like he hoped, Draconica was in the library, in the far corner of the reading room with some tome in front of her.

"Good morning." He greeted her awkwardly as he sat across the table from her.

"Good morning, Potter." The blond witch replied, not looking away from her book. "It is nice to know that you've already recovered from the incident yesterday."

"About the incident..." Draconica raised her elegant eyebrow: Potter knew who was behind the attack yesterday? Professor Snape questioned almost every Slytherin in the second year and the higher years who were capable of using disillusionment charm, sometimes even using legilimency, to find out who did that – even though the man hated Potter, he took a great offense at someone trying to kill his student, no matter who this student was. "You family does own a house elf named Dobby, right?" Draconica raised her eyebrow further: what a Malfoy elf had to do with this?

"Yes, that would be correct." She replied, still barely looking away from the book she was reading.

"House elves can't go against their master's direct orders, right? Please, order him to stop trying to save me – he might succeed in killing me instead."

'_So Dobby was behind the potions incident._' The blond witch surmised. '_And behind the strange behavior of the bludgers during that quidditch match as well, most likely._' "I will have words with him." She said. "But not now, later today." Harry nodded.

"Thank you." And with that he left, knowing well by now that his friend didn't want to be seen friendly with him when they weren't working together during DS meetings or other similar occasions.

**~/ *** \~**

It was the beginning of the dinner on the following day, when a very distressed professor Sprout ran into the Great hall, heading straight to the headmaster. Harry couldn't make out what was said, but judging by Dumbledore, and professor McGonnagal quickly following the Herbology professor out of the Great hall not a minute later – both with a concealed fear on their faces – something bad had happened.

Thanks to the rumor mill of the Hogwarts institution, by the curfew entire school knew that there was the second attack: a sixth year muggleborn Hufflepuff student named Thomas White was found petrified in the eastern wing of the castle on the third floor, not far from boys' toilets. What was surprising, the boy was found in the position like he was staring out of the window when he was petrified.

While the petrification of Colin had disturbed many, what happened to Thomas caused panic. Professors tried to assure their students – with various degrees of success – that the attacker would be caught soon and the victims would be revived, but it wasn't working as well as one could have hoped...

And of course, the news that something sinister was happening at Hogwarts couldn't be contained within the walls of the castle, so the arrival of lady Longbottom, accompanied by several other members of the Board of Governors, during the dinner on Monday was kind of expected. Well some might have expected them earlier...

The group headed straight to the professors' table and demanded explanations from Dumbledore why this was happening. The old man proved to be quite slippery, as didn't answer right away and led his 'guests' to his office instead... No one knew what was said there, but the members of the Board of Governors left the castle two hours later, and while the prefect patrols were now reinforced, nothing else seemed to have been done about the situation with the mysterious attacks...

* * *

A week had passed since the attack on Thomas White, and there were no new victim to whatever was hidden in the Chamber of Secrets. The school population started relaxing a bit, though, no student ever walked anywhere alone now...

The 'golden trio' was heading to the Great hall for some lunch, when they saw a pretty large group of people gathered around the notice board, reading a piece of parchment pinned to it with interest.

"What's happening?" Neville asked, as they approached the group. Seamus Finnigan, they classmates was the one to answer:

"They're starting a Dueling Club!" said Seamus. "First meeting tonight! I wouldn't mind dueling lessons – they might come in handy one of these days..." Ronald Weasley, who also was there, turned away from the parchment to look at Seamus.

"You think the Slytherin's monster can duel?" He asked. And it was possibly one of the cleverest things he had said in a while as he usually was talking either about professors being unfair, assigning 'ridiculously long' essay for homework, or about food or about games like chess.

"It still can be useful, right?" Seamus replied. Many nodded in agreement with him.

"I hope professor Flitwick will be teaching us." A third year oriental girl from Ravenclaw said. "He was a dueling champion in the past, after all. I'm sure he has things he can teach us." Everyone from the house of blue and bronze, as well as anyone else who knew about Flitwick's past agreed with her. Hoping that the girl was right and the club would be led by their Charms professor, Harry decided that he will go...

* * *

That's all, folks!  
Leave me a **review**.


	19. Dueling and Christmas

Here's the newest chapter for the "_**Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord**_", enjoy!

*** Review response**:  
**Naginator**, what can I say: read and see for yourself.  
**obsessivegirl73**, that's because I took a part from the book and was too lazy to fix the formatting properly.  
**Thaumologist**, **Highvalour**, **Awsomeness7**, **Aura Knight-Lyrin**, **foxykitsuneyouko**, **Dark Fox King**, **Victorules**, **Penny is wise**, **Hanzo of the Salamander 2.0**, thank you for your reviews.  
**The Sinful**, I replied you via PM.  
**Still Not Dead Yet**, well, this is magical world for you.

* * *

*** Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "_**Harry Potter**_" and its characters in any shape or form.

"human speech"  
"_wraith speech_"  
'_human thoughts_'  
"_**spells / parseltongue**_"

* * *

_This chapter was not beta-read. Yet._

Also, there will be no update next week - I need some time to adapt to my magistracy schedule. "_**Pyro**_" will be updated, though.

* * *

**chapter 19: Dueling and Christmas**

It actually took Draconica several days to realize the implications of what Harry told her: Malfoy house elves knew something about what was going on in Hogwarts this year. And since Dobby started trying to 'save' the young Potter back in June – the blond witch managed to get this much out of the elf – it appeared that the 'preparations' for the attacks started at about the same time...

Also, in June there weren't many visitors to the manor, and none of those were dark enough to propose releasing an unknown horror into the school full of children, and her father barely left his study at all, so, most likely, he was the one who initiated the whole thing. But her father wasn't stupid enough to unleash a monster that was supposed to be in Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets, when there was a chance, no matter how small, that it could hurt his own children... In other words, whatever was causing the attacks, it wasn't something her father understood completely. This wasn't good. Not at all...

But she wasn't going to tell anybody about this. Yet. First, she wouldn't hurt her own family. And this information was useless anyway: it neither answered who or what was behind the attacks, nor how they were made, nor how to stop them.

**~/ *** \~**

Harry, Neville and Hermione, along with their yearmates and many other students entered the Great hall for the first meeting of the Dueling club. It was still not known, who will be leading the club, but almost entire school hoped that it would be professor Flitwick... Unfortunately, these hopes were crushed when one Gilderoy Lockhart walked onto the stage in robes of deep plum, accompanied by Severus Snape, who, unlike the DADA professor, didn't look like he enjoyed being here too much

"I think we can leave now. I doubt we will learn anything useful from him." Neville said, nodding towards Lockhart.

"That might be true..." The green-eyed wizard replied. "But they say, Snape is pretty good with his wand. We might still learn something today."

"Professor Snape, Harry." Hermione corrected him, but the raven-haired boy ignored her. Meanwhile, the current DADA professor was attracting attention to himself.

"Gather round, gather round! Can everyone see me? Can you all hear me? Excellent!" Lockhart said as he waived his arm for silence. "Now, professor Dumbledore has granted me permission to start this little dueling club, to train you all in case you ever need to defend yourselves as I myself have done on countless occasions – for full details, see my published works. Let me introduce my assistant, professor Snape." Lockhart continued talking, while flashing a wide smile. "He tells me he knows a tiny little bit about dueling himself and has sportingly agreed to help me with a short demonstration before we begin. Now, I don't want any of you youngsters to worry – you'll still have your potions master when I'm through with him, never fear!" The look on Snape's face, though, was broadcasting man's desire to hurt the blond buffoon in front of him.

"Please note the way we are standing and how we are holding our wands: this is one of the officially accepted combative stances." The Hogwarts' potions master said, when he and Lockhart raised their wands like swords in front of them.

"On the count of three, we will cast our first spells. Neither of us will be aiming to kill, of course." Lockhart said to the silent crowd that was observing two duelers. Once again, the look on Snape's face was making it obvious that Lockhart was not walking away unharmed if it could be helped. "One... Two... Three..."

"_**Expelliarmus!**_" The potions master said in a flat tone that didn't betray his animosity towards the man in front of him, while a beam of scarlet light raced towards Lockhart. The spell hit the DADA professor on his chest and, ripping the wand out of his hands, sent him flying backwards and off the stage, where he smashed into the wall, and slid down it to sprawl on the floor. This caused some students, mostly Slytherin ones, to cheer.

"Well, there you have it!" Lockhart said as he tottered back onto the platform. "That was a Disarming Charm. As you see, I've lost my wand – ah, thank you, miss Brown – yes, an excellent idea to show them that, Professor Snape, but if you don't mind my saying so, it was very obvious what you were about to do. If I had wanted to stop you it would have been only too easy – however, I felt it would be instructive to let them see..." A murderous look from the Hogwarts' potions master caused Lockhart not to finish this phrase. Instead, the blond man said: "Enough demonstrating! I'm going to come amongst you now and put you all into pairs. Professor Snape, if you'd like to help me..." Hermione got herself paired with Neville, while Harry's partner happened to be Su Li from Ravenclaw. ...Despite her normally shy attitude, the petite oriental girl was very skilled with her wand, and was going to be quite a good fighter in the future...

Lockhart counted to three, and students started practicing the disarming charm. Those who knew it already, meaning older years and the DS members, were dong it perfectly well, while everyone else seemed to have some problems. And Ron Weasley, who was still using a cracked wand, seemed to have more problems than anyone else, if an ashen-faced and almost unresponsive Seamus was of any indication... Seeing the results of the first round of practices, the blond DADA professor, decided that having the students learn the disarming charm might not have been the best idea.

"I think, I'd better teach you how to block unfriendly spells." He said. "But I would need a volunteer pair..." Snape's eyes suddenly had a gleam Harry didn't like...

"How about Mr. Potter and Mr. Malfoy?" The potions master suggested. Lockhart smiled.

"What an excellent idea!" He said, while gesturing the two named students onto the stage. When both were there, the DADA professor made the young Gryffindor look at him, while Snape was whispering something into Basilius's ear, making the boy smirk. "Now, Harry, when he points his wand at you, I want you to do this." The blond man said, before raising his wand at attempting a complicated sort wiggling action... And dropped his wand. "Whoops! My wand is a little overexcited..."

"Scared, Potter?" The still smirking young Malfoy asked so that only Harry could hear him.

"As if." Was what the Gryffindor 'golden boy' replied, just as loudly as his opponent. After all, it was not like Basilius could start throwing any powerful spells right now...

"Three..." Lockhart started counting. "Two... One... Go!" Harry immediately threw up a _**protego**_ shield in front of him.

"_**Serpensortia!**_" The young Malfoy shouted, as a dark-brown viper of about eighteen inches in length appeared at the tip of his wand, before falling on the floor between him and Potter. There were screams as the crowd backed swiftly away, trying to get as far away from the venomous snake as possible.

"Don't move, Potter." The potions master said lazily, as if he hoped that the snake would bite the Gryffindor boy before he would vanish it. "I'll get rid of it." Meanwhile, using this distraction to his advantage, Basilius attacked his opponent:

"_**Rictumsempra!**_" The silvery light splashed harmlessly against Harry's shield that was still up. Seeing this, the young Malfoy tried again. "_**Tarantallegra!**_" The result was the same: Potter's shield successfully blocked the spell... Loud screaming, coming from the crowd, caused both 'duelers' to look there: apparently, Lockhart tried to vanish the snake, so right now it was only angrier and was slithering towards the nearest human being – Justin Finch-Fletchley.

"_**Petrificus totalus!**_" Harry shouted, dropping his shield to save a Hufflepuff boy. The spell hit the snake on its back, paralyzing it. Catching his opponent moving with his peripheral sight, the green-eyed wizard quickly moved to the side, barely avoiding being hit by Malfoy's disarming charm... Regaining a solid footing, Harry counterattacked with his own one. Basilius wasn't fast enough to avoid the spell, and lost his wand, while being sent flying backwards and almost off the stage. ...Seeing that the situation was getting out of control, Lockhart decided that he should finish the first meeting of the dueling club before anyone, or, worse, his reputation got hurt.

"Alright, everyone!" He said loudly. "I know that you all liked our little club..." Many were of a different opinion about the club, though: it was almost useless, especially for the upper years. "...But it is quite late already, and you all have lessons tomorrow, so I shouldn't keep you from preparing for the next day. See you in my dueling club..." Snape once again had a face like he wanted to murder the blond buffoon. "...in just one week." Students started walking out of the Great hall, heading back to their dormitories, discussing the events of the evening.

"I'm not going there there the next week." Harry said as the 'golden trio' and their housemates were returning to the Gryffindor tower. Neville and Hermione nodded in agreement: they could have spent this time with more use were they doing self-study...

**~/ *** \~**

November ticked away, as did the first two weeks of December, and right now the magnificent Hogwarts castle was buried under the thick blanket of snow. There were no attacks after the one on Thomas White, but everyone was still tense, expecting that the Slytherin's heir will reappear at any moment, unleashing the beast from the Chamber of Secrets onto those of impure blood... The patrols in the corridors, especially during the curfew were still reinforced, and the students were still recommended not to go anywhere alone, if they could help it.

At the same time, there also was only one more meetings of the Dueling club. Apparently, Lockhart understood that he couldn't run it, and decided to quit with the idea... Not like there was much _he_ could teach to the students of Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry, especially the older ones.

The end of semester exams were mostly finished by now, and Harry was pleased to know that he and his friends – Draconica and Susan and Hannah included – all did well, even in DADA where their professor tried to make a test that was a cross between the one they had on their first lesson and what it actually should have been...

Even if the Slytherin's heir was not heard for over five weeks, not many wanted to stay at Hogwarts for holidays, and almost all seats on the Hogwarts express were booked by the students who wanted to spend Christmas at home... Hermione was going – she and her parents were going to be skying in the Swiss Alps – as was Neville, who was promised some rare plant for his greenhouse for Christmas. The Gryffindor chaser trio was leaving Hogwarts for holidays as well, though, Harry suspected that they were trying to avoid the repeat of all-day-long quidditch trainings with Oliver Wood (he too decided to go home for the holidays this year) they had the previous year...

In the end, Harry and the Weasley lot were the only Gryffindors that were going to stay at the castle for Christmas – and Percy was saying that he wasn't going home only because it was his duty as a prefect to help professors in these troubled times. Malfoys were staying (and, thus, Crabbe and Goyle too), as were some sixth and seventh year Ravenclaws and a single fifth year Hufflepuff, but that was all.

* * *

No matter how tense and uneasy the Hogwarts population was – like they were expecting the Slytherin's heir to attack that day – the Christmas dinner was really enjoyable. The Hogwarts stuff made the Great hall look magnificent: there was a dozen of frost-covered Christmas trees there, with the living fairies playing on their branches; thick streams of holly and mistletoe were crisscrossing under the ceiling... And Dumbledore made enchanted snow – warm and dry – falling, powdering the floor in hall, making it look like a some majestic magic glade...

Of course, the house elves that were working in the kitchens outdid themselves, preparing the feast, and everyone found it to be so delicious that they couldn't deny themselves a helping or two... or five, like a certain red-haired second year Gryffindor did.

**~/ *** \~**

The next morning Harry allowed himself to sleep in, and descended to the Gryffindor common room only half past eleven in the morning... Percy Weasley was there, sitting next to the fireplace, reading some tome on runes, while trying to keep an eye on the twins, who were obviously planning their next prank in the far corner of the room.

Like the previous year, there was a small stack of wrapped gifts, addressed to Harry, waiting for him under the Christmas tree. Picking them up, the green-eyed wizard sat in the nearest armchair and started opening them. Hagrid had sent him a large tin of treacle fudge, which the young Potter decided to soften by the fire before eating. A box of chocolates in a green and silver box was from Draconica (He had sent her a similar one, plus a _normal_ spellbook for DADA second and third years). Several vials of quite expansive herbal extracts arrived from the Longbottom greenhouses – and Harry had sent several advanced Herbology and Botanic books to Neville. The Gryffindor chaser trio sent him a collective gift in the form of the current teams magical photo with their 'autographs' (their lipsticks' imprints on the back of the card – the girls were such teases...), and more sweets... Oliver Wood gifted him a snitch that was magically turned into a small storespace that only the rightful owner could access – apparently, the Gryffindor keeper was as good with charms as he was at keeping the rings safe, even if he mentioned somewhere in the 'instruction' that security charms would need a recharge every couple of months. Finally there was a postcard with the views of Alps, a book about wizarding geography and some Swiss chocolate from Hermione.

**~/ *** \~**

Hundreds miles away, a certain bushy-haired witch too was going over her presents. Her parents got her some 'book' money, as they couldn't go into the magical districts themselves, some sugarless sweets, and some books that would allow her not to fall too far behind her peers in the 'mundane' knowledge. Plus the trip itself was a gift too. ...If only the walls of the rented cottage were thicker, or her parents were not as loud the previous night, this would have been the ideal Christmas for Hermione...

Neville had sent her a tome on the common charms, with a good deal of theory (including Arithmancy) on the spells discussed. From Harry she got a book of fairy tales of the magical world and some Honeydukes sweets. Padma Patil – Hermione became good friends with the Ravenclaw girl during the DS meetings – gifted her some body oils from India with a postcard wishing her a merry Christmas. Another postcard was sent by Draconica, and even if there was nothing more to this gift, Hermione was still happy that her Slytherin 'associate' felicitated her.

**~/ *** \~**

Theodore Nott was pleased with how the things were going for him. First and foremost, no matter how he disliked Dumbledore's pro-muggle politics, he had to admit that the ancient headmaster made the holiday feasts at Hogwarts fantastic and enjoyable for everyone...

His father had gifted him several rather useful items that were borderline dark, and the young Nott couldn't wait to test them back at the castle. Maybe with those he could finally find enough power to overthrow that Malfoy brat. The 'disappearance' of the Slytherin's heir brought him back some supporters, but that was still not enough: he needed more to be sure that his positions as the leader of the Slytherin house would be unshakeable... Oh well, Basilius would get what was coming for him soon enough...

**~/ *** \~**

Tom Marvolo Riddle – just Tom – forced himself to continue playing that supportive kind-of-older-brother to the girl who was writing in his _diary_, comforting her from not being noticed by her crush – Harry Potter, the wonder boy that somehow destroyed the real him about eleven years ago. He wanted to know how mere toddler managed to defeat the greatest Dark Lord in the recent history (him), but being what he was right now, that had to wait...

Instead, Tom was plotting the next batch of attacks on the mudbloods and blood traitors. He was quiet for far too long, as it was... But the old fool knew that _he_ was out there, so it couldn't hurt to be extra careful... He already had the list of desired victims in his mind, and only had to wait for the school break to end, so that he could continue purging Hogwarts from the taint of the dirty blood. The girl that he was possessing didn't need to know about his plans, of course...

* * *

That's all, folks!  
Leave me a **review**.


	20. Parseltongue?

Here's the newest chapter for the "_**Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord**_", enjoy!

*** Review response**:  
**raw666**, do you think they would believe that their master isn't of the purest blood?  
**Penny is wise**, **obsessivegirl73**, **Hanzo of the Salamander 2.0**, **Awsomeness7**, **Taboo22**, thanks, folks!  
**Highvalour**, and why should you be surprised?  
**Aura Knight-Lyrin**, no, never played that.  
**First Lady Lestat**, you will get that soon enough.  
**RE5 forever**, I think I have enough stories to write right now. But I will look into 'Species'...  
**Still Not Dead Yet**, he he he.

* * *

*** Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "_**Harry Potter**_" and its characters in any shape or form.

"human speech"  
"_wraith speech_"  
'_human thoughts_'  
"_**spells / parseltongue**_"

* * *

_This chapter was not beta-read. Yet._

* * *

**chapter 20: Parseltongue?**

The first day of the spring semester passed quietly and without accidents. Aside from Snape being his usual self, of course. Unfortunately, when it comes to the life of one Harry Potter, good things never last long...

Tuesday started like it was to be another peaceful day, but it all changed a little after three in the afternoon, when the third attack happened... The scion of house Potter was in the library, doing some research for potions in hopes of avoiding 'displeasing' professor Snape with his 'inadequate' brewing skills, when a loud scream was heard. And judging by the sound, it was coming from another floor. Even though it was a clear sign that something was wrong, Harry couldn't help but get interested. So, collecting his things, he he left the library and headed to where the scream came from.

As the young Gryffindor descended onto the third floor, he saw a large group of students, mostly Hufflepuffs, surrounding something in a tight right that didn't allow the green-eyed wizard to see what caused this. But the whispers, that could be spelled out over the noise of the agitated public, indicated that there was another attack, a double one this time: Justin Finch-Fletchley was petrified, and Nearly Headless Nick was ...damaged.

Not a minute later the headmaster with the escort of various professors arrived to the corridor and had the students to return to their dorms. As the crowd was dissipating, Harry saw that Justin was indeed petrified, while sir Nicolas, instead of his normal pearly-white appearance of a ghost, looked to be black and smoky and was floating motionless and horizontally about six inches off the floor... But knowing that he should follow the order, lest he wished to be punished severely for disobeying in the current situation, the young Potter turned around and headed back to the Gryffindor tower...

* * *

An hour later rather disturbed professor McGonnagal entered the common room of 'her' house. Almost instantly all conversations in the room – about what happened to Justin and Nearly Headless Nick – ceased, as the entire house looked at their head, waiting for what she had to say, but the transfiguration professor herself wasn't sure where she should start.

"As you all know, today another attack on a Hogwarts student happened." Professor McGonnagal said finally. "We all had hoped that the after the ...incident with Thomas White the attacks would stop, but, unfortunately, this not the case. As such, the enforced curfew is back, until the one behind the attacks is rendered innocuous. Also, no one is to go anywhere outside the dormitory alone: in such troubled times we should stick close to each other... Is that clear?" She asked.

"Yes, ma'am!" The students of the house Gryffindor chorused. The Scott witch nodded.

"I would also like to ask, does any one of has any information about how the attacks are made? We would be very thankful for any help you can provide us." She said. Everyone remained quiet as no one knew anything about these mysterious cases of petrification. "Very well, before I return to the stuff meeting, I will try to answer so questions you may have."

"Do you know what is attacking ...students?" A fourth year girl Harry didn't knew asked. McGonnagal made a wry face: even if she had expected his question, she didn't want to answer it, especially since there wasn't much she could say...

"Unfortunately, at this moment we do not know that, but the evidence is pointing to the attacker not being a human." Harry had to force himself not to snort: that, if you were to believe the legend about the Chamber of Secrets, was obvious from the beginning. "It also seems that whatever creature is doing this, it is not capable of human level of intelligence, thus there must be someone who controls it – someone who calls himself the heir of Slytherin." Somewhere in the depth of the room Ginny Weasley, currently possessed by Tom, who wanted to see what the Hogwarts staff was doing firsthand, flinched. McGonnagal noticed the flinch, but, thankfully for Tom, couldn't tell that the girl was possessed. "Don't worry, ms. Weasley, we're doing everything in our power to protect you, and I promise that the one behind the attacks will be caught and dealt with soon." 'Ginny' nodded.

'_Fat chance there, woman._' Tom thought. '_But, they are suspecting that I control the beast. Of course they don't know what the beast is and that it's me behind the attacks, but still... I need to be more careful, not to blow my disguise._' Having heard everything he wanted – he was sure that there would be wild guesses about how the attacks were made, but they would never guess correctly, not before he was a living wizard again, when no one will be able to stop him – Tom canceled the possession, not forgetting to create a set of memories for Ginny: it would not do if he was caught because his 'host' had a missing memory.

"Do you know what kind of a beast is doing this?" A fifth year boy asked.

"Like I said before, we do not know what is petrifying the students, but because of Salazar Slytherin's affinity for snakes, we believe that this is some kind of a serpent. Unfortunately, there are no know species of the magical snakes that can petrify that can live in Scotland." The transfiguration professor replied. "Any other questions?" First year girl, Helen was her name, raised her hand.

"When will everyone be cured?" She asked in a bit shaky voice.

"As the key ingredient for Restorative Draught is extract of mature mandrake, we will have to wait for another two-three months, but I promise that we will cure everyone who was petrified." Professor McGonnagal replied. Many students, mostly the first years, sighed in relief as didn't want to lose their friends... There were several more question, that the transfiguration professor answered to the best of her ability, before she headed out of the tower to rejoin her colleagues for the staff meeting.

**~/ *** \~**

Despite everything the Hogwarts staff was doing to protect their students, Wednesday ended with another tragedy: Tracey Davis and Slytherin seventh year John Freeman – while a son of a squib mother and muggleborn father, he was tolerated by the house, as he was both physically and magically strong, and, though not the brightest student, had good work ethics that allowed him to earn quite some points for Slytherin – were found petrified on the second floor on their way to the library.

This caused even more panic and distress among the students: the Slytherin's heir was now targeting even 'his' own house, and whatever he was using to accomplish the 'cleansing' was capable of damaging even a ghost. Truly, magic at its darkest...

* * *

Taking into the account the danger that was now lurking in the castle, Harry decided that it would be a good idea to stop centralized meetings of the DS, and let each hose hold their own get teach ins in the common rooms for the time being... The idea wasn't liked much by the members of the Defense Study Group, but everyone understood that this was done in hopes of protecting them: common rooms were the safest places right now.

Unfortunately, it seemed that the scion of house Potter was worrying about the safety of his classmates more than the staff did: other than teachers or (rarely) prefects escorting their students to and from their classes, nothing appeared to have been done to ensure that no new attacks happen...

And the board of Governors was suspiciously quiet: it was two days since the attacks resumed, and no one had appeared to even ask simple 'how can this be happening?' yet. Most likely, though, they were somehow kept in the dark about the tragedies happening at Hogwarts, which meant that either the 'heir' was trying to keep the investigation into the attack as weak as possible, or the staff didn't want the world to know that they were incapable of keeping children safe... Either way, this was not good.

**~/ *** \~**

Thursday evening, though, passed without anyone joining those already petrified, but everyone was as tensed as they were the day before, and didn't dare to breathe even a single sigh of relief, not to jinx the situation... The situation was so bad, that even potions master Snape wasn't picking on the Gryffindors and, for once, appeared to be a fair professor.

Lockhart, though, tried to use situation to get more popularity, telling every soul that was willing to listen that he already knew who was behind the attacks, and that he was just waiting for the right moment to catch the perpetrator red handed. Surprisingly enough, there was a couple of students that still believed every word the blond pounce was saying...

Right after the DADA lesson finished, Harry was approached by two Slytherin witches. While he and Draconica were friends, even if they still tried to keep this as private as possible, Daphne truly was nothing more than an associate for the scion of the house Potter.

"Can I help you, ladies?" The green-eyed wizard asked. Both girl nodded, almost simultaneously.

"Potter..." Daphne – the dark-haired witch – began. "I know that you are not like the rest of the headstrong Gryffindors that would rush to destroy the danger in front of them without thinking, but if... if you decide to go after... after the monster from the Chamber... wearewillingtohelpyou." She finished a bit too fast for Harry to understand properly.

"What Daphne wants to say is that we are willing to give you a _limited_ assistance, should you decide to protect the school yourself... After all, if the situation with the attacks is not resolved soon, Hogwarts will be closed, and we all will have to continue our education elsewhere... Plus we want the one behind the attacks to pay for what happened to Tracey." Draconica said.

"...Thank you." The young Potter replied unsure: he hoped that the situation would be resolved by the proper authorities, as he sure as hell didn't want to face the monster from the Chamber of Secrets or its master.

"Well, our escort is here." The blond witch said, nodding towards the head boy and a female Slytherin prefect standing by the door. "Good luck with having Lockhart protecting you." She added, before she and Daphne joined the rest of her housemates, all of whom were eager to return to the common room. Harry just sighed.

* * *

Harry sighed yet another time, as he glared at the empty parchment, hoping that the Potions essay would write itself. He had had a row with Ronald Weasley earlier this afternoon – the redhead though that he was a dark wizard and will kill them all just because he had a civil conversation with the Slytherin witches – and now he was in no mood to do his homework.

Suddenly he heard a yelp full of pain and turned right in time to see Parvati faint and fall down onto the table she was leaning over while looking through her notes. Since almost everyone in the common room was either first or second year, the general reaction to what happened to the Indian witch was to scream and hope that someone else would resolve the situation... Harry, though, knew how to keep his head working under any circumstances.

"_**Enervate!**_" The spell was enough to revive Parvati, who tried to sit up, almost falling back onto the table in process, all the while clutching her head as if she had a mother of all headaches. "What happened, Parvati?" The young Potter asked. The girl only moaned in pain in response. "We need to get her to the Hospital wing. Can someone call professor McGonnagal here?" ...Just some five minutes later agitated transfiguration professor entered the Gryffindor common room, immediately heading to the armchair where Parvati currently was.

"What happened here?" The Scott witch asked. Neville was the first one to reply.

"Parvati suddenly screamed and fainted." The scion of the house Longbottom said.

"It appears that she had had a very powerful traumatic shock for a reason unknown." Harry continued. "And as she fainted, she fell onto the table, and had her stomach bruised. I revived her, but she is barely able to speak as she is in pain, and I'm not sure how to help her as I'm afraid to make the things worse. We need to bring her to the Hospital wing." Professor McGonnagal nodded.

"Very well." She said, using her wand to gently lift the Indian girl into the air. "Mr. Potter, Mr. Longbottom, I want you to come with me so that we can explain the situation to madam Pomfrey."

"Yes, ma'am." Both boys replied, and followed the transfiguration professor as she levitated Parvati towards the Hospital wing...

* * *

Once 'Poppy', with the help of powerful medical potions, made the pain Parvati felt go away, and healed the bruise the girl had, professor McGonnagal decided to question the girl, hoping to get at least some insight into what had happened. Unfortunately for her, all that the Indian witch remembered was seeing a yellow disk, before an unimaginable pain made her black out.

As it seemed that whatever happened to Parvati would remain a mystery, the transfiguration professor decided that it was time for her to bring the two 'lions' that accompanied her here back to the Gryffindor common room, and then to finally finish grading those damned essays on inanimate to animate transfiguration...

They were about to leave, when professor Flitwick, followed by professor Sinistra and two Ravenclaw prefects – both levitating petrified bodies of Hogwarts students – entered the Hospital wing.

"Thanks Merlin, you are here Minerva!" The Charms professor exclaimed. "Unfortunately, I'm bringing only bad news... There was another attack." He said in a whisper, pointing to the two unmoving bodies the prefects were levitating.

"Who?" The Scott witch asked, almost afraid to hear the answer.

"Padma Patil and Amanda Greendale." Harry had never met the second girl, but from her appearance he could tell that she was a fourth or fifth year student. "These..." Professor Flitwick continued, while pulling a box of polished metal plates from his robes. "...Were found next to them scattered on the floor." He made a small pause. "Ms. Greendale wanted to work on her runes in the library tonight, and ms. Patil, being interested in Ancient runes, tagged along." McGonnagal just sighed: the 'heir' was at work again, petrifying her students, and they still could do nothing to stop him...

"...Twins' bond!" Harry suddenly exclaimed. Everyone in the room turned to look at him. "What happened to Parvati was caused by the attack on her twin sister." Professor Flitwick nodded: he had seen the Gryffindor witch in the Hospital wing, though she was yet to see her petrified sister as she (Parvati) was sleeping, thanks to a dose of Dreamless sleep potion madam Pomfrey gave her.

"Five points to Gryffindor for astuteness." The Charms professor said, before McGonnagal ushered her students back to their common room.

**~/ *** \~**

The attack on Padma sent the student body into panic – even though she was from India, she was a pureblood witch, and if the 'heir' attacked her, then no one was safe anymore! Of course, there was a myriad of theories who was behind the attack and how they were made, but all of them were so outrageous and ridiculous that no one would believe them...

The great danger that the beast from the Chamber of Secrets presented caused the underground commerce of Hogwarts to bloom as venturesome students were selling amulets and other magical trinkets that, according to them, would protect from the attacks (that surprisingly stopped after the one on Padma and Amanda).

* * *

While the general populace of Hogwarts was either spreading the rumors, all of them ridiculous in their nature, or trying to make money on the fears of others, or was just afraid of every shadow they came across, thinking that the beast from the Chamber of Secrets was hiding there, Harry decided to do his own investigation into what was attacking the students. Of course, Neville and Hermione were with him there, as were Daphne and Draconica, even if the young Potter was yet to officially ask for their help...

So far they only knew that the beast was most likely a serpent of some sort, so they were going through the tomes about various magical snakes and creatures related to them... Currently, the green-eyed wizard was reading about a tropical and very poisonous snake called Ormr... Turning the page, he saw a drawing of the said snake.

"_**You sure are pretty.**_" He said, rubbing his finger against the drawn snake's back. The snake stared at him, while the two Gryffindors and two Slytherins next to him gasped. "What?" He asked.

"Potter... You... You can speak parseltongue!" Draconica said in a shocked voice.

* * *

That's all, folks!  
Leave me a **review**.


	21. Mystery of the beast

Here's the newest chapter for the "_**Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord**_", enjoy!

*** Review response**:  
**Highvalour**, I believe, at this point of time Harry mind is occupied with something other than why some of his professors are allowed to do whatever they want to.  
**RE5 forever**, **Hanzo of the Salamander 2.0**, **Taboo22**, **kazikamikaze24**, **obsessivegirl73**, **Awsomeness7**, **god of all**, **raw666**, thank you, folks!  
**Still Not Dead Yet**, remember, Harry has to concentrate to talk to an inanimate snake carved on the sink in the book? I think that while he freely switches to parseltongue while addressing a real snake, he can't just hiss something to an unmoving statue without thinking about talking in the serpent language.  
**Victorules**, hm... dark-medic... If you've watched Naruto, Kabuto of the end of the first season would be a good example of a darker medic: capable of both healing people and damaging them with his techniques, while not having a moral dilemma about what he does.  
**Penny is wise**, I replied you via PM, but to answer the question that you might have by the time you finish reading this chapter - everything will be explained in the next chapter.  
**loginanout**, you're partially right, as the Chamber will be the catalyst of change for Harry. As for what Dumb-as-a-door would think about this - wait and see.  
**Goldrune09**, he he he.

* * *

*** Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "_**Harry Potter**_" and its characters in any shape or form.

"human speech"  
"_wraith speech_"  
'_human thoughts_'  
"_**spells / parseltongue**_"

* * *

_This chapter was not beta-read. Yet._

* * *

"_**You sure ar****e pretty.**" He said, rubbing his finger against the drawn snake's back. The snake stared at him, while the two Gryffindors and two Slytherins next to him gasped. "What?" He asked._

_"Potter... You... You can speak parseltongue!" Draconica said in a shocked voice._

**Chapter 21:**** Mystery of the beast**

"Parseltongue?" Harry asked in a bit of surprise: while he had come across the term a couple of time during his studies of magic, he was yet to find somewhere, where it would be explained what this term exactly meant.

"Yeah, it is the language of serpents." The blond Slytherin witch replied. "A rare ability that is considered to be hereditary. In Europe only descendants of the Slytherin family have it. There are also a clan in Cambodia and a couple of families in central America that can speak to snakes."

"And because Slytherin family wasn't always what we would consider 'good', in England, parselmouths – those who can speak pareseltongue – are labeled as dark." Neville added. "It was like this for ages, but after You-Know-whose rise to power it only became worse." Harry nodded, finding this information to be most useful: now he knew that he should keep his ability a complete secret. Not that he would have revealed it to the world otherwise...

"Hmm... In this case I want you to swear that you will not reveal this ability of mine without my expressed consent." The scion of the house Potter said firmly. Hermione looked at him with a hurt expression on her face, Neville only appeared to be a bit surprised, while both Slytherin girls didn't show any emotional response to this request.

"But Harry... We're your friends! We won't tell your secret to anyone!" The bushy-haired witch said, her eyes on the dark-haired wizard in front of her.

"Yes, Hermione, I know. But I have enough attention on me as I am, I don't need extra... And while I'm sure you will not tell this secret to anyone consciously, it is still possible that you can blab it without thinking. The oath I ask for is to prevent that." The Gryffindor witch nodded slowly.

"OK, Harry, I understand." And she was the first one to swear the oath, followed by Neville, and, finally, two Slytherin witches.

"...You know, Potter, you have quite a bit of Slytherin slyness in you." Daphne said once the oaths were sworn. Harry chuckled.

"I'll take that as a compliment." After a small pause, he continued. "But enough of that, we need to continue our research." There was a round of nods and the five second year students returned to trying to find out what the beast from the Chamber of Secrets was...

**~/ *** \~**

Unfortunately for the five, they had to halt their research for now as the Hogwarts professors devised a new way to keep the students in the common rooms: they were now assigning a lot of extra homework, so much that even Hermione barely had any free time left. At least the heir of Slytherin was in the same situation and no new attacks were happening, which allowed the school to breath a sigh of relieve and relax a little bit...

After three weeks without any attack (the last one being on Padma and Amanda), Hogwarts staff decided to let the children have some fun, and so the quidditch match between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff was scheduled to Sunday afternoon that week. While Harry had to go and play for his house, the rest of the research team weren't bound like that, and Hermione and Neville decided to continue researching the beast from the Chamber. Draconica and Daphne, though, decided not to join their 'colleagues' and went to watch the match with the rest of the school...

* * *

The game was much more intense than normal for these teams, as both sides were playing their absolute best, not knowing whether they will have a chance for another match or not this school year. Or at all, as if the attacks wouldn't stop, the chances were, the Hogwarts will be closed...

An hour into the game, both teams had scored more than a hundred points (Gryffindor being a single goal away from two hundreds), and it seemed that they still were warming up, thus the match was very interesting to watch. Too bad, the weather wasn't very welcoming for both players and spectators, but it was the end of January in the northern Scotland, so it would have been foolish to expect anything other than chilly wind and light but unpleasantly prickly snow at this time...

Because of this weather, Harry was just hovering high above the pitch, trying to spot the little golden ball, which seemed to be hiding well today, and if not for the warming charms the girls – chaser trio – put on his quidditch robes in the locker rooms, he would have froze into an icicle long ago... Finally, the green-eyed boy caught a flash of gold just outside of the ring of the tribunes around the pitch, and headed there, pushing his Nimbus to its limits, wanting to return to the warm and cozy common room as fast as possible. Of course, Cedric Diggory, fifth year Hufflepuff seeker, saw him move and too headed to where the snitch was, but as he was even further from the flying ball than Harry, and on a slower broom, he had little to no chances of catching it.

And indeed, the young Potter was the first to reach the snitch, but the tiny ball was as difficult to catch as always, so Harry had to show a good deal of his flying skills to keep up with it... Finally the winged ball seemed to get tired of advanced aerobatics and let the Gryffindor seeker to get close. Harry was about about to catch it, when madam Hooch yelled for the game to stop. He still caught the ball, even if he had suspicions that this won't be counted, before heading to the center of the pitch where both teams, madam Hooch and professor McGonnagal were.

As it turned out, the match was canceled because another attack happened. And even before the transfiguration professor asked him to go with her to the Hospital wing, Harry knew who got attacked: Hermione and Neville... His fears were proven correct when he saw their petrified forms in the Hospital wing. Apparently, the 'heir' or his informants had overheard them when Hermione said during the lunch that she had an idea about what the beast from the Chamber of Secrets was.

* * *

Harry returned to the common room, feeling very down from having his friends taken from him, and he now wanted to make whoever was behind the attacks pay for what he (or she) had done. And to make things worse, it seemed that the Hogwarts staff was doing nothing to prevent the attacks from happening again, and it fell to him to stop the 'heir', so some one from the student body will have to do stop the attacks. Permanently... But without Hermione, it would take him ages to unveil the secrets of the Chamber, Harry was sure of that, so he would have to take Draconica and Daphne up on their offer.

The young Potter approached the girls during the brake between two DADA lessons, and they agreed to help him in his research like they had promised. Unfortunately, with the amount of the homework they (all students) had, and the curfew policies being enforced like never before, they would have to wait until Thursday to meet up and start working on unraveling the secrets of Slytherin's chamber...

* * *

Unfortunately for the three researchers, they didn't find anything about the snakes that could petrify, and could like in Scotland. Even among those serpents that were already extinct. Basilisks came close, though, but their gaze killed, not petrified, so the kings of serpents were removed from the list of possible 'monster of the Chamber'.

Harry had suggested that they look into wider selections of beasts that were related to snakes, those like chimeras, lamia or nagas, but as it was almost time for dinner, they had to end their research for today. Hopefully, they'll have time to meet up and continue looking for what was attacking students sometime before next Thursday...

**~/ *** \~**

As the days went by, the morale of the Hogwarts was still low, as many feared that they would be the next target of the mysterious heir of Slytherin – it was already proved that even purebloods and members of Slytherin house weren't safe. And no one even now had any information about what was the beast that attacked the students, or where the Chamber of Secrets was, or even who this 'heir' was... So one Gilderoy Lockhart got a bright idea of boosting school's morale. Of course, knowing Lockhart, this was not going to end well...

Lockhart's idea of a morale-booster became clear at breakfast time on February fifteenth (fourteenth was a Sunday after all, so the blond DADA professor moved the event one day). When Harry walked into the Great hall, for a moment he thought that, that he had made a mistake and entered the wrong room: the walls were all covered with large, lurid pink flowers, while pink heart-shaped confetti was falling from the pale blue ceiling... Trying his best to ignore the 'decorations', the green-eyed wizard went over to the Gryffindor table.

"What's going on?" Harry asked them, sitting down and wiping confetti off his bacon. Weasley twins pointed to the professors' table, where Lockhart could be seen wearing a lurid pink robes to match the hall's decorations, and was waving for silence... Professors around him were looking stony-face, though one could see a muscle going in professor McGonnagal's cheek, while the Hogwarts potions master looked like someone had force-fed him a barrel of the nastiest potions known to a man.

"Happy Valentine's day!" Lockhart shouted. "And may I thank the forty three people who have sent me cards! Yes, I have taken the liberty of arranging this little surprise for you all, and it doesn't end here!" He clapped his hands, and a dozen of dwarfs, who looked like they'd rather be elsewhere, marched into the Great hall. They all were wearing golden wings and had harps in their small hands. Unfortunately neither made them look any better... "My friendly card-carrying cupids..." Harry could have heard many students snort at this point. "...will be roving around the school today, delivering your valentines! And the fun doesn't stop here! I'm sure my colleagues will want to enter into the spirit of the occasion! Why not ask Professor Snape to show you how to whip up a Love Potion!" The potions master gave the student body a look that clearly said that the first one to ask a love potion from him would become his unwilling dummy for testing new (and no doubt vile in both taste and effect) potions. "And while you're at it, Professor Flitwick knows more about Entrancing Enchantments than any wizard I've ever met, the sly old dog!" The miniature professor buried his face in his hands.

* * *

Harry hoped that aside from having to sit through two lessons with Lockhart, his day would be free of his hellish version of the Valentine's day, but, as always, he had a bad luck. Just as he was about to head down to the Great hall for some lunch, a dwarfs grabbed him by his ankle, stopping him.

"Oy, you! 'arry Potter!" The dwarf said, twanging his harp in a threatening way. "I've got a musical message to deliver to you in person." The scion of the house Potter tried to pry the little thing off him, but the dwarf proved to be far stronger than Harry gave him credit for. "Here is your singing valentine: His eyes are as green as a fresh pickled toad, His hair is as dark as a blackboard. I wish he was mine, he's really divine, The hero who conquered the Dark Lord." The dwarf sang in an awfully not-musical voice.

"What's going on here?" Came a drawling voice of the youngest Malfoy. "Getting some ridiculous complimentary songs from your fans?" Unfortunately for Basilius, Theodore Nott decided that this was a chance to make him a laughing stock of the house.

"I knew you had a thing for dark-haired ones, but I never thought that you were playing for the other team." The older Slytherin boy said. "I think I need to place some new security charms on my room's door. Just in case." Basilius yelled something along the lines of 'when my father hears of this...', before disappearing into the crown, obviously trying to escape with whatever dignity he still had after the Nott's comment. "You owe me a small favor for this, Potter." Theodore said, before adding in a whisper. "I saved you from that little bastard and whatever he had planned to humilate you, after all." Harry just nodded, before heading to the Great hall, hoping that this would cause this awful day to end sooner...

**~/ *** \~**

Harry, Draconica and Daphne were once again found in the library, surrounded by many tomes on magical beasts as they were still trying to deduce what the monster from the Chamber of Secrets was. Suddenly, the blond witch broke the silence:

"I think, it might be a Medusa – after all they were known for their ability to turn living people into stone statues." Draconica said as she continued reading the article from the book.

"No, it isn't Medusa." Harry replied from behind his own pile of the books. Both girls send questioning looks in his direction, not that he could have seen those, though.

"And why is that, Potter?" Daphne asked, while looking into her fellow Slytherin's book. "They fit well with what we know about the monster from the Chamber." Harry shook his head.

"First of all, the last know Medusa – Gorgon – was killed some three thousands years ago, which is long before Hogwarts was founded." He said. "And the second reason why the beast we are looking for is something else – according to the Greeks, Medusas' life expectancy is about fifty years and they are not capable of hibernation, so unless were are speaking about a group of them, the one that can sustain their number, they would have died out not long after the founders did."

"And what if there is a group of them living somewhere in the castle?" Daphne asked.

"Aside from the legend saying that there is only one 'monster' in the chamber... Medusas are a bit like nagas as their upper body is that of a human: the chances are their children, like human ones, aren't a perfect replica of their parents, thus, if Medusas were the monster from the Chamber of Secrets, the legend would be different." The scion of house Potter replied. "And let's not forget that all known Medusas were killed two millennia before Hogwarts was founded, so I find it doubtful that Salazar Slytherin could find one, never mind many, to live in his secret Chamber."

"Now that you put it like that..." The dark-haired witch said. "I'll have to agree with you that the monster is not a Medusa." After a moment she added: "But that still was a good idea, wasn't it?" The Gryffindor wizard shrugged – not that the girls had seen that.

"Oh well, let's continue looking." Now that they had already looked through most of the books about magical creatures in the Hogwarts library, they could finish their research tonight...

* * *

"What is that damn thing!" Harry swore, trying to keep his voice down and not to slam the last book about the magical creatures shut. "There is nothing that fits what we know about the beast from the Chamber that was around when Salazar lived!" The girls, while equally displeased with the lack of findings, kept their cool though.

"Calm down, Potter. Throwing a temper tantrum will not help our situation in the least." Daphne said in her usual distant tone. The scion of house Potter took a deep breath and tried to calm down, like he was advised to.

"With what we have found, I can make two conclusions: one being that we are missing some vital information and are not looking for the beast where we should, and the other – the monster of the chamber isn't a recorded magical creature, but something that Salazar bred himself: he sure was genius enough to do that." The green-eyed boy said. Draconica nodded.

"That would make sense why we can't find anything." She said. "But any idea which one of the two is correct? After all, if we just made a mistake and dismissed the beast as not possible due to not having enough information, dealing with it would be much easier, than fighting against a completely unknown monster."

"You are saying that we will have to fight it?" Harry asked. While he wanted the 'heir' to pay for what happened to Neville and Hermione and others, he didn't think he was suicidal enough to go down to the Chamber of Secrets, wherever it was, and fight the horror that resided there.

"No, by 'we' I meant everyone in the castle, but wouldn't the professor be in the similar conditions? After all, they only have knowledge and experience, not some extra super powers we don't." The blond witch replied. The Gryffindor wizard nodded.

"Yeah, right." He said. "And for some reason I too think that we're just missing some details about the monster and the attacks. Actually, I feel like I should know these details, but for some reason I can't think of what they are."

"Don't worry, Potter." Daphne said. "The situation will be resolved, so just take care not to become the next victim."

"Gee, thanks." Harry chuckled. "But seeing that our little research reached its deadend for the time being, I believe, we should stop it and wait for some new information to appear." The girls nodded. "Be safe. See you tomorrow." And with that he disappeared into the thin air via his invisibility cloak – after all it wouldn't do if he were to found wandering around the castle alone...

* * *

That's all, folks!  
Leave me a **review**.


	22. The secret of the Chamber

Here's the newest chapter for the "_**Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord**_", enjoy!

*** Review response**:  
**loginanout**, **raw666**, **Hanzo of the Salamander 2.0**, **Aura Knight-Lyrin**, **Impstar**, **Penny is wise**, **jafr86**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
**obsessivegirl73**, **Highvalour**, **Still Not Dead Yet**, I'm not sure which one would be correct, but more sources point to 'Medusa' being the name of the species. I might be mistaken, but bear with me.  
**Goldrune09**, no, it's THE basilisk.

* * *

*** Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "_**Harry Potter**_" and its characters in any shape or form.

"human speech"  
"_wraith speech_"  
'_human thoughts_'  
"_**spells / parseltongue**_"

* * *

_This chapter was not beta-read. Yet._

_Also, I'm terribly sorry, but my 'Naruto' inspiration decided to take a vacation, so there will be no updates there for now. Hopefully, not for long.  
_

* * *

**chapter 22: The Secret of the Chamber**

During the next two months, thanks to a great load of homework – which did its purpose of keeping students in the common room – and the lack of any know activity of the 'heir' Harry did no real progress in uncovering the mystery that surrounded the attacks. Daphne and Draconica weren't any more lucky either... The only thing that the trio was sure about – the attack on Hermione and Neville was to silence them: apparently, the bushy-haired witch had (almost) uncovered what and how was attacking the students.

As there were no attack for about two months, the Hogwarts population started relaxing a bit, even though in the past the 'heir' too had taken a 'holiday'... So, maybe, because almost everyone was losing their vigilance, thinking that there will be no attacks now, they started happening again.

On Wednesday, April 21, a fourth year half-blood Hufflepuff Jack Longbow was found petrified on the second floor, just a dozen meters away from where the first attack – the one on Filch's cat – had happened. And like that time, there was a lot of water on the floor. Since this had happened before dinner, by the time the meal had ended, everyone in the school knew about the 'return' of Slytherin's heir.

The security measures were upped once again, but this didn't seem to be doing much as the next morning an enforced prefect patrol – two sixth years, Scott Thomson and Jessica McKinley, the later being a politically neutral pureplood Slytherin, and Astronomy professor Aurora Sinistra – were found on the fourth floor next to an armor suit with a well-polished metal shield.

The news about entire patrol being successfully attacked threw Hogwarts into a panic, and the fact that Dumbledore was put on probation for being unable to resolve the situation wasn't helping any as the headmaster was limited in his powers, while there was no one to assist him there yet. In other words, the school defenses were only crippled... The only thing to brighten up the day was professor Sprout announcing that mandrakes were almost ready and would be harvested in a week.

With Astronomy canceled due to the professor being petrified, Harry had some extra time to think about the whole situation with the attacks and he came to a conclusion that he found a piece of the puzzle he and Draconica and Daphne missed two months ago. But he was not about to act without consulting with the Slytherin witches, just in case he was mistaken about the whole thing.

* * *

"You do look quite enthusiastic today, Potter." Daphne said, once the trio was a little bit away from the rest of the second year Gryffindors and Slytherins. "Did you find out what the monster of the Chamber is?"

"Actually no." The green-eyed wizard replied. "But I got an idea that might lead us to that." The witches both raised their eyebrows.

"And what that would be?" Draconica asked, as she was looking at him intently.

"Well... I was thinking about the circumstances of the attack and noticed this: Filch's cat and now Mr. Longbow were found next to puddles of water. Colin Creevy was looking through his camera – which is specular by the way. Thomas White was next to the window during the night. Justing saw whatever attacked him through Nearly Headless Nick. Padma and Amanda Greendale had reflective metal plates scattered at their feet while Hermione and Neville had a mirror and the patrol that was found yesterday morning was next to the polished armor suit..." The scion of the house Potter said.

"Hm... Now that you put it like that... Tracey and John Freeman were like they were looking at his pocket clock... Are you trying to say that none of the victims saw the attacker directly?" The blond witch asked.

"Yes." Harry replied. "That is exactly what I wanted to say: we missed the real monster during our research because we were looking for something that could petrify directly. In our case, it appears, petrifications happened because the attacks weren't at full power thanks to the reflections, or, in Justin's case, ghost's semi-transparent body." The witches nodded, seeing the logic in his theory. "And if I'm correct, the beast from the Chamber is a basilisk. It can be derived from two facts. One: there were no visible damage on either of the victims of the petrification, thus the attacks are either spell based or were in the form of a gaze, and, two, basilisk can kill with their gaze, so it's more than likely that the reflection of it would petrify." The girls nodded again.

"Good God, Potter!" Daphne exclaimed, showing more emotions that usual. "Are you sure you aren't a Slytherin or a Ravenclaw?" She asked. Harry grinned sheepishly.

"Actually, the hat wanted to place me into your house, but found me to be too impatient to be a Slytherin, that's why I'm a Gryffindor." The girls looked at each other not sure what to make out of this revelation.

"I see..." Was Daphne's reply. At this moment Lockhart let the previous group of students to leave his classroom and the second year Gryffindors and Slytherins started filling in... Since the class was reduced in their numbers, Harry chose a now empty seat next to Daphne instead of his usual one: after all they did have a business to discuss, and seeing that their time outside of the common rooms was very limited, they should be using every opportunity now that they had had a clue about what was going on with the attacks...

"OK, so, suppose we are right, and it's a basilisk attacking. It's true that they can live for a very long time, but that also means that they grow really large. For one, I find it doubtful that a giant snake can move through the castle unnoticed." Draconica said.

"Well, I don't know how to answer this question, but I'm sure we can come with some ideas in this hour." The scion of the house Potter replied. "Actually, I might have a clue for that. After Susan's lecture at DS, when I was returning to the tower, I heard a voice in parseltongue. At that moment I thought that it was a mere hallucination, but now I know it was not... The point is, the voice was coming through the wall. Or I think it was."

"But the walls... Aren't they solid?" Daphne asked. Harry shook his head.

"Dunno... I think that a detailed map of Hogwarts would help us greatly, but the only one I know is in possession of the Weasley twins, and I don't see them giving it to us." He said.

"And how the map would help us in solving the mystery of the hisses from inside the walls?" Daphne asked.

"I won't." Was the reply of the green-eyed wizard. "Well, not directly. But with the map, we can see where exactly the attacks had happened, so we might be able to find something in common about them. And that might give us a clue about how the basilisk is moving around." The girls nodded. '_I think I should also tell McGonnagal about the basilisk. While we aren't completely about that, all clues we have are pointing towards that._' The young Potter thought. '_Professors are the ones that are ought to deal with it anyway, so they must know this._'

* * *

Later, just after the lesson finished, Harry was confronted by an angry Weasley boy. It looked like Ron was very much against the idea of him working with Slytherin witches...

"You traitorous bastard! How can you talk to those slimy Slytherins!" The redhead yelled. "How... How can you... Betray Gryffindor like that? Betray by associating with those... Those back-stabbing snakes!" This earned him a fist to his stomach... While Harry wasn't particularly strong, Ron didn't have any physical training at all (not even from chores he might be doing at home), so the impact was more then enough to stop him.

"Never badmouth my friends." The scion of the house Potter hissed. "And I do not have to answer you questions about why I am talking to Daphne and Draconica... But I will: they want their revenge on the 'heir' since he had hurt their friend. We have the common goal, and uniting our resources was the optimal solution, given the situation." He made a pause. "I do not wish to talk anymore about this." And he walked away, catching up to the rest of the Gryffindor second years. Not wanting to be left behind in the corridor alone, Ron had to hobble after his classmates as fast as he could...

**~/ *** \~**

Later that evening, just as she returned from yet another staff meeting, professor McGonnagal found a note on her table. A couple of white owl feathers were a clear indication of who had sent this note, though. Curious, she picked the note up and read it:

_Good evening, professor,_  
_I know that you were investigating into what is attacking the Hogwarts population, and I also know that you weren't able to find the answer to that question. While we too aren't completely sure about this, we do believe that the beast is a basilisk.  
The gaze of a basilisk is fatal, but it appears that no one had looked into beast's eyes directly: it was either a reflection or through a ghost (which can't die for the second time), thus the cases of petrification... Unfortunately we were unable to find a plausible explanation of how the thousand years old, and, without a question, huge, basilisk is moving undetected. We also don't have any idea of who the heir is, or where the Chamber of Secrets is, but we still believe that our findings will be helpful._

The Scott woman shook her head. Kids these days... Though Harry was right, their findings will be helpful: the staff came to a similar conclusions about the beast from the Chamber, but this was the final proof that they were indeed facing an ancient and very powerful basilisk. And while the note wasn't signed, professor McGonnagal new who exactly wrote it, and who was working on uncovering the secrets of the Chamber.

"Thirty points to Gryffindor for assistance in protecting Hogwarts from the 'heir'. Twenty points to Slytherin..." While the transfiguration professor didn't like Slytherins much – she was a hardcore Gryffindor after all – she was also very fair, and she knew that ms. Malfoy and ms. Greengrass were working with the 'golden trio' to uncover the mysteries that surrounded the attacks. "...for assistance in protecting Hogwarts from the 'heir'." Satisfied with this, she folded the note and headed to the headmaster's office: the staff needed to know that there was indeed a basilisk on the loose in the castle...

**~/ *** \~**

Meanwhile Harry was having a conversation with the infamous Weasley twins – he knew they had some kind of a map of Hogwarts in their possession. The twins, of course, tried to deny that at first, but then gave in and started asking why he needed the map. The green-eyed Potter truthfully told them that he needed it – well, second, third and fourth floors parts at least – to try to uncover some more mysteries of the infamous Chamber of Secrets.

While the twins didn't want to give the map itself to anyone, they too wanted the situation with the 'heir' resolved in a way that wouldn't have Hogwarts closed. So they agreed to make a partial copy of their map for Harry. Unfortunately, copying even three floors worth of the map will take some time, as the castle wasn't small and the map itself was protected from any copying charms a Hogwarts student might know...

**~/ *** \~**

On Monday, Harry once again chose to sit with Daphne and Draconica during the DADA lessons. Thankfully, the Weasley twins were able to finish the copy of Hogwarts map for him yesterday evening, so the scion of the house Potter and his ...partners could continue trying to solve the mystery of the Chamber of Secrets...

"I see, you got a map, Potter." The dark-haired witch said. "By I still hardly can see how it will help us understand how the basilisk is moving 'round the castle unnoticed." The green-eyed wizard shook his head.

"Like I said, it won't help us answer that question directly, but..." He pulled a handful of knuts out of his pocket, placing them on the table next to the map. "These will show us where the attacks had happened." He illustrated, while placing the small bronze coins onto the map... And they formed more or less three defined groups, which was a clear indication that there _was_ a pattern there. "What can we say about these places?" He asked as he pointed to the map.

"One group of the attacks happened next to the girls' toilet no one uses because of the ghost haunting it. Another happened near the rarely used boy's toilet. The third group is next to the corridor leading to the currently abandoned part of the castle." Draconica said as she studied the map.

"In other words, none of these three places is commonly visited by teachers or students." Harry concluded. "But there might be another thing in common: I'm not sure, but I don't think there are any portraits at these locations, meaning no one can see the 'heir' and the basilisk." The girls nodded. "And now that you mentioned a ghost... Isn't that so-called moaning Myrtle?"

"Yeah. She's the ghost that haunts girls' toilet on the second floor." The blond witch replied, causing the young Potter to smile a bit.

"And she's the only ghost in the castle that is young enough to be a student at the moment of her death." The girls looked at him, not exactly following his train of thoughts. "If you remember, the Chamber was opened once about fifty years ago. There were several cases of petrification and a single death." Harry picked a sickle and placed it over the 'Myrtle's' bathroom. "I believe that she was that one student that died when the Chamber was opened last time."

"Oh." Both Daphne and Draconica breathed out. Harry's theory seemed to be very plausible. Daphne continued then: "But this still doesn't answer the question about how the basilisk is moving around unnoticed." Harry nodded towards the map.

"Notice that two of the the three locations near which the attacks happened are toilets." He said. He had already deduced this a couple of minutes ago, but he wanted to see whether the girls would come to the similar conclusion or not.

"Pipes." The dark-haired witch said. "There is a huge system of pipes in the castle. Some of those should be big enough to fit a huge snake." She made a small pause. "And the biggest pipes are connected to the toilets... And, of course, these pipes are hidden in the walls or something like that as we can't see them."

"Yes. I think, that's why I was hearing the basilisk hissing coming from the wall." Harry said. "The serpent was moving through the pipe that was in the wall."

"OK... So we know what the monster from the Chamber of Secrets is, and how it petrifies the victims, and how it moves without being noticed. But what about the location of the chamber?" Draconica asked.

"Well... These toilets seem to be the entrances." The green-eyed wizard said, as he was looking at the map in front of them. "I'm not sure which one is used in the abandoned part of the castle, but that seemed to be of little importance as 'Myrtle's' bathroom is the main one."

"Why do you think so?" Daphne asked.

"Remember the writing on the wall?" The young Potter replied. "I takes some time to make it, especially with how resistant to any and all attempts of removal it was. The 'heir' just wouldn't have enough time to come there from another location – the attack and the writing were made during the dinner, remember."

"So that toilet is the 'main' entrance of the Chamber? We should tell professors about that." Draconica said. "The sooner the situation is resolved, the sooner Hogwarts will be back to normal."

"Agreed." Harry nodded. "But there is one small problem: I doubt that Slytherin would let just anyone enter his secret Chamber. There ought to be some protections, and they must be either blood-based or parseltongue-based. We really should hope that it is the later one." The two witches nodded: if the protections of the Chamber were blood-based, there was no way it for them (professors) to enter it and kill the basilisk.

"So you'll have to risk yourself to protect the school?" The blond witch asked – like him, she too didn't want Hogwarts to be closed. He shook his head.

"Nah, unless there will be an ambush, no. I'll just open the doors and let the professors do their job there... And, of course, as I will ask them all to swear the oath of non-disclosure, my status of a parselmouth will remain a 'secret'."

"Good." Ms. Malfoy replied, making Harry raise his eyebrow.

"Are you worried about me, milady? I'm flattered." He said, causing Daphne to let out a giggle, while Draconica's cheeks turned pink

"Don't dream of it, Potter!"

* * *

That's all, folks!  
Leave me a **review**.


	23. Trapped

Here's the newest chapter for the "_**Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord**_", enjoy!

*** Review response**:  
**Naginator**, **Penny is wise**, **jafr86**, **god of all**, **Taboo22**, **Hanzo of the Salamander 2.0**, **Awsomeness7**, **Armacryss**, **ElementalMaster16**, thanks for your reviews, folks!  
**Highvalour**, we've discussed this via PM.  
**raw666**, not all of that is going to happen.  
**Knatz**, depends on what you mean by 'soon'. As for the rest - it is as I write it. =)  
**Impstar**, more or less - he still would need to go to Gringotts for that. As for pet basilisk...  
**Goldrune09**, sexy Slytherin chick will be in hospital *damn, Spoiler =(*  
**obsessivegirl73**, hehehe.  
**Still Not Dead Yet**, yes, the story deviates from canon much more after the Chamber.  
**halmir**, read and see (though this will not be discussed as soon as you'd like).

* * *

*** Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "_**Harry Potter**_" and its characters in any shape or form.

"human speech"  
"_wraith speech_"  
'_human thoughts_'  
"_**spells / parseltongue**_"

* * *

_This chapter was beta-read by NARUHAREM FOREVA. Special thanks to him for that.  
_

* * *

** chapter 23: Trapped**

When professor Flitwick hurried into the Great hall and towards the professors' table with a terrified face, Harry knew that things had just turned from bad to worst. And even though the staff was trying not to cause any unnecessary panic, their hushed whispers about a student being abducted and Hogwarts being closed could still be heard by those who were close enough to their table...

The final proof that something bad had happened was Dumbledore announcing that the classes were canceled and everyone was to return to the dormitories and wait for further instructions there... Harry, though, decided that it was the best time to reveal that he (and his friends) had at least an idea of where the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets may be. So he waited for the rest of the students, led by prefects, to head towards the exit from the Great hall, and walked up to the professors' table.

"Is there something you need, Mr. Potter?" Professor McGonnagal asked, as the entire Hogwarts staff that was currently there was looking at him.

"Not need per se, but I do have something that might help you avert the worst of the current crisis." While this did sound a bit arrogant, no one, not even Snape, dared to comment about that right now.

"And what that would be, Harry, my boy?" Dumbledore asked, turning the twinkling of his eyes to the maximum... The scion of the house Potter sent a glare at him for the familiarity of addressing, but otherwise ignored it, concentrating on answering the question instead.

"I myself and my friends were researching into the mysteries of the Chamber as well, as you all might know by now." Several professors, including the headmaster himself nodded. "While we have no proof, we believe that we found the most likely location of the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets." The green-eyed boy made a short pause. "Unfortunately, we also believe that the Chamber has some protections that would not let those 'unworthy' enter."

"Please share your thoughts with us, Mr. Potter." Professor Sprout said, moving closer to him, like she hoped to hear more because of that.

"It seems that the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets is located somewhere in the girls' bathroom on the second floor. That particular toilet is haunted by so-called moaning Myrtle, whom, we believe was that one student killed by the basilisk when the Chamber was opened fifty years ago." Dumbledore let out a chuckle.

"What could have been expected form the most cunning wizard that Salazar Slytherin was: to hide his Chamber in the place where no one would think of looking for it." Then the elderly wizard shook his head. "But I'm afraid, you are right, and there must be some protections on the Chamber so that only the one of his blood can enter. So, unless there is some way to obtain the needed blood, all we can do is sealing the entrance." He said in a gravely tone. Madam Pomfrey, who was eating in the Great hall today instead of her office, snorted.

"I doubt that. Salazar might have been a bastard, according to the history books, but he undoubtedly was a genius when it came to potions, and he should have known that installing blood-based locks in the toilet of all places isn't... well... good. I think that he used another method for choosing whether someone can enter his Chamber or not: his bloodline was that of parselmouths." The medi-witch said.

"That is of little help to us, as the last known parselmouth was the Dark Lord himself." The Hogwarts potions master said... Harry steeled himself, preparing to reveal his secret.

"No, that is of some help, as I know one other parselmouth." The young Potter said. "But I need you to swear on your magic not to disclose the following information to the world without my expressed permission." He made a small pause, barely a moment, before adding: "Meanwhile I will swear an unbreakable vow that I'm not the 'heir of Slytherin' that is attacking Hogwarts population." Of course, there were a couple of very subtle calls to arrest him for his ability, bit those were quickly silenced by the headmaster... After the vows were sworn and the basic plans for entering the Chambers were created, Dumbledore sent the heads of the houses to inform the other students to stay in the dormitories for the time being, while the rest of the Hogwarts staff plus Harry headed towards the moaning Myrtle's toilet...

* * *

Fifteen minutes later the group that was going down to the Chamber, minus professor McGonnagal, who was yet to return from the Gryffindor tower, assembled next to moaning Myrtle's toilet (and right under the last message from the 'heir'). Harry wasn't surprised that the headmaster, professor Flitwick and professor Snape were there – they all were known for their dueling skills and powerful magic. Presence of Lockhart was a bit surprising as the young Potter thought that the man would run away at the first sign of a real danger to his narcissistic self.

Whom Harry was surprised to see was Bathsheda Babbling, Study of Ancient Runes professor. She was a thin middle-aged woman (who might have been really pretty when she was a couple of decades younger), wearing a bit stylish glasses and robes ill-suited for anything beyond sitting, standing or walking. Though, if she was that good with runes, her defenses would be second only to Dumbledore's... Alas there were no runic shields that could stop the gaze of a basilisk...

Finally professor McGonnagal arrived, with Ronald Weasley following her closely behind. Harry was half-expecting the redhead to do something like this – after all it was his sister that the 'heir' had abducted – but still hoped that their head of the house would be able to keep him away from going with them to the Chamber.

"Minerva, are you sure it's wise bringing young Mr. Weasley here?" The Hogwarts headmaster asked as he looked at the transfiguration professor.

"No, I'd rather he stayed in the dormitory, but he was quite adamant about going down there to save Ms. Weasley." McGonnagal replied. "But, anyway, now that we're all here, shouldn't we start?" Professor Bubbling shook her head.

"While we all want the school o be safe, I think I should remind you that we're up against a thousand years old basilisk, with a hide that can withstand even really powerful magics. And let's not forget about its deathly gaze." Dumbledore nodded.

"Indeed, going down there unprepared would be an utter suicide..." Harry raised his hand, causing Snape to look him like he did something wrong during his potions lesson.

"If I may? While basilisk hide is really resistant to magic, it shouldn't be that good against physical attacks." This raised a couple of eyebrows.

"And what are you suggesting, Potter, that someone will have to approach the damn basilisk and stab it with a sword?" The potions master sneered. "You are even more arrogant than your father if you think that this gonna work." Dumbledore raised his hand.

"Severus." He said with a reproach. Then the ancient headmaster turned to the scion of the house Potter. "So, what was your idea, Harry?"

"While I myself chose different interests, because of my career choice, my cousin is quite interested when it comes to the firearms. So I know that 0.5" round from sniper rifle like Barret M82 can pierce up to thirty millimeters of steel... I doubt that the hide of the basilisk is more resistant to damage than this." The green-eyed Gryffindor said.

"Interesting..." Dumbledore muttered. "But to kill the beast with a rifle you'll have to aim. And while you're aiming, you are very vulnerable to the gaze."

"Yeah, but as the basilisk is living in some hidden chamber, I have little doubt that it adapted to darkness. A powerful flash of light, like lumos solaris or, maybe, maxima lumos, should be enough to force it to shut its eyes for several seconds." The headmaster pondered about for a couple of second, before nodding.

"That should work... Take fifteen points to Gryffindor for your idea." Harry nodded, before adding:

"But since the rifle is pretty heavy and has great recoil it would be a good idea to make it – not the bullet, though – featherlight, and add a powerful cushioning charm to its butt." Dumbledore nodded: he had thought about doing something similar himself.

"Now, Harry, if you would be so kind to provide me with a copy of your memories about the rifle in question..." The Hogwarts headmaster said as he drew his wand and gently pressed it to Harry's temple. "Just concentrate your thoughts on it." The young Potter did what he was asked, but almost lost his concentration, when he felt a sensation of something cool being pulled out of his head... Looking at headmaster's wand, he saw that it now had a silver-ish strand attached to its tip. "This is a copy of your thoughts about the rifle." Dumbledore said, before pressing the tip of his wand to his own right temple, making the thought absorb into his head. "I see..." He said after a couple of seconds, before waving his wand in a complicated manner... A rifle was conjured a couple of seconds later. Its colors and some proportions were a bit off, but the most important part – the one that was supposed to shoot – was all right. Once the ancient wizard was sure that he didn't make any mistakes with the conjuration, he added the featherlight and cushioning charms. "_**Geminio!**_" Dumbledore whispered, once again pointing his wand at the rifle. Slowly four copies of it appeared. "Well, these should last only for a couple of hours, but that should be long enough for us to complete the task..." Quickly checking the copies with his magic – from his day on the battlefields of the Second World War Dumbledore knew how important it was for weapons to be in perfect condition – he gave the copied rifles to everyone but Lockhart and Ron.

"Now that we're ready, let's go deal with the beast." Professor Bubbling said. The rest of the group nodded and, led by Dumbledore, entered moaning Myrtle's toilet... Once there, the ancient wizard did some complex scanning charms, which, in the end, revealed that there was a concentration of magic far above normal on one of the sinks that together formed the column in the center of the bathroom.

"The entrance must be there." Dumbledore said. Nodding, Harry approached the sink and, casting the _**muffliato**_ charm so that those not under the oath of non-disclosure would not hear him talking in parseltongue, started inspecting the sink. Finally, after a couple of minutes he found a small snake engraved on the surface of the tap. Forcing himself to think of it as a real serpent, the young Potter decided to command it to open the way to the Chamber.

"_**Open.**_" He hissed. Much to his surprise, this worked and the sinks started sinking into the floor, revealing a huge hole that was an end of a giant pipe. Canceling the muffling charm, he addressed to the professors. "I think, I should go first, in case there are more similar locks on the way." There were reluctant nods as no professor (aside from Snape, possibly) wanted a student to risk his life before them, but Harry did have a point.

"Very well." Dumbledore said. Taking a deep breath, Harry entered the pipe...

**~/ *** \~**

'_So they are here... A bit too soon for my likes, but what can I do about that?_' Not completely corporeal yet Tom thought as he felt someone enter his Chamber of Secrets. '_And to think that they found a parselmouth to open the way... Who can it be?_' He used what little powers he had at the moment to get a better reading from the wards that protected the Chamber. '_Potter? How dare he possess the noble gift of my ancestors?_' Previously he planned to ask, whether the boy would join his cause or not, but now... but now that Potter bastard was going to die for his crimes against the Ancient and Noble house Slytherin!

Forcing more power that he took from that naïve little girl that wrote in his diary in the wards, Tom forced the entrance to close. He wanted to deal with Potter one on one, without that annoying old man interfering... Unfortunately for him, the secret gate in the pipe through which undesirables were entering his Chamber took some time to close, so two more managed to slip in.

'_Oh well..._' Tom reasoned. '_One of them is a useless buffoon that taught DADA this year, and the other is a blood-traitorous scum. They won't be a problem for me._' ...Now he just had to wait for Potter brat to arrive to the inner Chamber, where he would kill him. Via basilisk most likely, as he still had about two hours before he will become completely corporeal – downsides of starting the ritual before the required level of bonding with the sacrifice was reached...

**~/ *** \~**

Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore sighed as he felt something shift inside the pipe Ron Weasley had just entered... It appeared that the 'heir' had some control over this part of the castle while he did not as the Chamber's wards were not the part of Hogwarts grid.

"It appears that our opponent had trapped them in his Chamber. And I'm afraid, we will not be able to break into it in time to save them from a certain death." The faces of all professors, including Snape's, darkened. "But we all should do our best to bring these wards down and help our wards and colleague." With those words the ancient headmaster motioned professor Bubbling to follow him, before entering the pipe...

**~/ *** \~**

On the other end of the pipe, things were even worse... Just as Lockhart was standing up from his landing, Ron Weasley crashed into him, sending them both back onto the dirty ground with enough force to break blond man's wand and send Ron's – still held together by generous amount of spellotape by the way – out of boy's hands... And at the same time magic around them finished sealing the only exit from the Chamber they knew..

"It seems that the adventure ends here." Lockhart said as he threw Ron off himself while simultaneously picking boy's wand. "I really should thank the 'heir' for sealing the entrance: no one will know what happened here!" The blond buffoon proclaimed. "I shall take a bit of this skin back up to the school, tell them I was too late to save the girl..." Feeling that something bad was about to happen, Harry trained his wand (the rifle had only one round, and it was reserved for the basilisk) on Lockhart, who continued his 'villain's speech'...And that you two tragically lost your minds at the sight of her mangled body... Say good-bye to your memories!" The fraud DADA professor raised Ron's wand, pointing it at the boys. "_**Obliviate!**_"

This plan of Lockhart's might have worked, had the man not forgotten the condition Ron's wand was in. So, instead of wiping boy's memories, he ended up with the wand exploding in his hand – with enough force to disfigure it, most likely, permanently – while several beams of magic were sent in all directions. One of these beams hit Lockhart on his shoulder, evaporating the flesh there and causing the blond buffoon to pass out from pain... Another beam hit the ceiling, causing collapse.

On his instincts, Harry dove away from the danger, to the left. Unfortunately for him, this meant that the collapsing ceiling blocked the exit from the Chamber from him... Sighing, Harry adjusted the rifle on his back and, creating a small light on the tip of his wand, started walking towards the heart of the Chamber of Secrets, hoping that there he would find another exit from this place, even though his self-preservation instincts were screaming to run away from this foul place... But he continued walking...

Soon the dark and dirty corridor ended with a wall that looked to be made from big granite blocks. In the center of the wall, there was a circular door made from some kind of metal. This door lacked a knob or any visible locks, but there were two iron snakes opposite to the hinges of the door. And since he was yet to see any routes coming this way, aside from the one he used himself, Harry reasoned that if there were other exits from the Chamber, they were beyond this door.

"_**Open.**_" He hissed at the snakes. And he was surprised when they started slithering 'round the edge of the door, while the sounds of bolts moving were heard. Once the snakes returned to their original positions, the great door slowly opened, revealing a corridor, lit by greenish torches. Readying himself for whatever he may face there, the young Potter stepped into the corridor...

* * *

It was shorter than the previous one, barely thirty meters, and it ended with an archway, leading into a great Chamber (lit by the same cold greenish light), easily four times the Great hall, with multiple other archways along the walls and a great face of Salazar Slytherin on the wall opposite the one where 'his' archway was. There also thick stone pillars, entwined with carved serpents, supporting the ceiling that was barely seen in the shadows of the Chamber... Far away from him and just several meters in front of Salazar's face, Harry saw body of Ginerva Weasley. He ran to her and checked the girl: she was pale and her skin felt cold, like she was almost dead... Suddenly sound from the nearest pillar got his attention. Looking there, Harry saw a handsome but slightly transparent teen in Slytherin Hogwarts robes.

"So you are the 'heir'?" Harry asked, pointing his wand at the unknown boy...

* * *

That's all, folks!  
Leave me a **review**.


	24. The basilisk

Here's the newest chapter for the "_**Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord**_", enjoy!

*** Review response**:  
**Impstar**, indeed, that will happen rather soon.  
**Armacryss**, **Highvalour**, **jafr86**, **Still Not Dead Yet**, **god of all**, **obsessivegirl73**, **Arct1cfox**, **Penny is wise**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
**The Sinful**, I'm not sure BFG works at Hogwarts. =)  
**ElementalMaster16**, that's Harry's fate for you.  
**Aura Knight-Lyrin**, _**this**_ basilisk will be quite a valuable 'asset' even after it's death. *SPOILER hidden in this sentence*

* * *

*** Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "_**Harry Potter**_" and its characters in any shape or form.

"human speech"  
"_wraith speech_"  
'_human thoughts_'  
"_**spells / parseltongue**_"

* * *

_This chapter was beta-read by NARUHAREM FOREVA. Special thanks to him for that.  
And thanks to everyone for 125 000 hits!  
_

* * *

**Chapter 24: The basilisk**

"Indeed, Potter." The teen replied. "But I'm offended that you can't recognize me: we, or better yet, my future self and you, had a very memorable meeting some twelve years ago..." Harry scowled.

"You are Voldemort?" The young Dark Lord remained impassive.

"As I was, while still attending Hogwarts." Was his reply. "But I believe I shouldn't take any more of your time: you are already twelve years late to meet the blood traitors that you call your parents." The scion of the house Potter jumped away from young Voldemort, while taking a defensive stance. Voldemort didn't pay that any mind though, as instead of outright attacking the boy in front of him, he spoke to Salazar's head in parseltongue: "_**Speak to me, Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts four!**_" The giant statue opened its mouth, creating a way for _something_ to enter the Chamber.

"Here comes the basilisk." Harry whispered to himself, but the not yet corporeal Dark Lord heard him. And this caused him to let out an evil chuckle.

"Do you really think that a no-good half-blood like can defeat the noble king of serpents? Just be a good little boy our _esteemed headmaster_ wants you to be and die to atone for your sins of daring to possess noble gifts of the Slytherin line!" The young Potter sent him a hateful glare, before shutting his eyes close as the basilisk entered the Chamber. "_**Kill the boy!**_" Young Voldemort ordered. Harry raised his wand and listened for the giant serpent approaching him.

"_**Lumos solaris!**_" The green-eyed Gryffindor yelled, creating a bright flash of light that temporarily blinded anyone that had his (or her as the basilisk was actually a female) eyes open. The basilisk let out an angry hiss and started blindly attacking anything nearby, hoping to his the offender... Using this to his advantage, Harry took the rifle he had on his back before now, and aimed it to where he expected serpent's head to be.

"No, no, no, Potter, you've been a bad boy for playing with these muggle toys." Young Voldemort, who somehow had already regained his ability to see, mocked. "I'll have to take this from you." He drew Ginny's wand. "_**Finite!**_" The conjured rifle resisted the spell for a second, before dissolving into nothing.

"Damn!" Harry swore, before having to jump behind the nearest pillar, as the basilisk, while still having its eyes closed, turned its head in his direction. The soon-to-be-reborn Dark Lord, though, wasn't finished with him, and sent an _**expeliarmus**_ charm in his direction, while Harry was mid-jump... Somehow, the young Potter managed to dodge it. The second disarming charm, though, hit him, ripping the wand from his hand and sending it into Voldemort's, while throwing the younger boy onto the floor.

"Now, let's see how famous Harry Potter fares against the great basilisk Slytherin left to protect Hogwarts from dirty mud-bloods! Show me your power, Potter! You didn't have a wand that night, why should you need it now?" The not yet corporeal Dark Lord taunted. Harry wanted to retort that Voldemort's demise on the Halloween night was his mother's doing, but wisely kept his mouth shut, so that the basilisk would not find him that easily.

Suddenly there was a flash of fire just under the ceiling in the middle of the Chamber, causing everyone to look up (and see that the ceiling too had snakes as its theme). This flash of fire turned out to be a phoenix caring the Sorting hat in its talons... The pheasant-sized firebird descended towards where Harry was hiding from the basilisk and dropped its burden into boy's hands, before flying away to confront the serpent king (well... queen).

Hearing the phoenix attacking the basilisk – apparently, Fawkes was immune to his opponent's deadly gaze – the young Potter took his chance to study the Sorting hat, hoping to figure out why it was brought to him.

"If you want to die there, Mr. Potter, keep staring at me." The Hat said as it 'glared' at the boy that was holding it. Harry glared back at it, annoyed that it didn't give him any helpful advices.

"And what I'm supposed to do with you? Put you on my head?" He hissed, forgetting that the basilisk will hear him, if she hadn't heard the Hat already. The said hat developed a tick mark on what would be the forehead of its face.

"Well, Mr. Potter, if you know other uses for hats..." It retorted, still glaring at the green-eyed wizard that was holding it. Shrugging, Harry put in on. _'Hmm... I still stand by my previous evaluation of your character Mr. Potter: if it wasn't for your rushing into things, you'd do very well in Slytherin. Maybe..._' The Hat stopped for a moment, before continuing. '_But I'm not here for that... Even though you're fighting for Hogwarts not as selflessly as Godric would have liked, you still are one honorable young man... It is decided: Gryffindor legacy shall assist you._' The next moment something heavy hit Harry's head from inside the Hat.

"Ouch!" The scion of the house Potter yelled. "What was that for?" Getting no answer, he removed the Sorting hat from his head, and saw a broadsword slide out of it, its handle landing right between his legs. The said broadsword was crafted from some silvery-blue metal. The swords handle was wrapped in dark-brown leather and had a big egg-shaped ruby at its end, while the blade was simple in design, lacking any decorations aside from its original wielder's name carved in Gothic letters near the guard. And the original wielder of this sword was ...Godric Gryffindor.

Well, aside from him not knowing how to use bladed weapons properly, the sword was very useful to Harry as it was currently the only weapon in his possession. And most likely it was also charmed against the summoning and disarming charms...

Looking away from the gift of the Sorting hat, the young Potter noticed that he was much too in his own little world up to now, as he could see flashes of magic that meant that Voldemort was trying to get the phoenix away from the basilisk. He could also hear the great serpent moving all the time as it was both dodging the flaming bird's attempts to claw its eyes out, and trying to kill the said bird as well...

"Why do you keep interfering, you, stupid burnt chicken!" The still-not-completely corporeal Dark Lord yelled angrily as he sent several _**bombarda**_ curses at the phoenix. And as Fawkes was trying to dodge serpent's tail at the moment, he couldn't evade all of the curses, and one of those connected with his wing, sending him into the Chamber's wall... The basilisk was about to 'go' finish him, but Voldemort interfered. "_**You can eat the bird later. Kill the boy!**_" He ordered in parseltongue. Hearing this, Harry decided that it was his time to run. Knowing that the giant serpent was most likely faster than he was, the young Gryffindor sprinted to the nearest archway leading out of the Chamber... "Run, Potter, run." Voldemort laughed evilly. '_You will not be able to outrun your death, for I'm the one who controls the Chamber._'

* * *

Harry was indeed running for his life. The basilisk was hard on his heels, and only many twists and turns of the pipe they were in were saving him from being eaten by the serpent... Of course, even though he was concentrating hard on running away from the beast that was chasing him, the young Potter was also thinking hard, trying to find a way out of his current predicament.

He was trying to think of a way to kill the basilisk with the Gryffindor's sword: while he was sure that stabbing the serpent through its head would work, he didn't think he could pull that off and walk away. Throwing the sword and hoping it did enough damage to the snake was stupid too... If only he still had his wand with him...

Then it hit him: Gryffindor's broadsword was magical and most likely could double as a focus for his magic to be cast. The problem was – he had no idea how to cast spells with a sword, and stopping to try would be a suicide. Hm... There was a couple of spells that he thought he could try that wouldn't require him to stop... Desperately hoping that this would work, he took the broadsword in the reverse grip – thankfully the blade was much lighter than it looked to be – and pointed it in general direction of the basilisk that was chasing him.

"_**Lumos solaris!**_" There was a flash of light, not as bright as he could make with his wand, but still... Moment later Harry could hear the basilisk hitting the 'walls' with its head as the great serpent tried to shake off the temporary blindness. Deciding to use this to his advantage as much as he could, Harry cast another charm with the sword: "_**Atero!**_" A small smokescreen made up of black smoke appeared between him and the basilisk. Of course this wouldn't be enough to stop the great serpent, but hopefully, it would delay it for long enough for him to find a way to kill it without dying himself...

Unfortunately for him, it appeared that Voldemort didn't lie back in Chamber (not that Harry had heard him), and he had some control over the Chamber of Secrets and the pipes that surrounded it, as the young Potter soon found himself in a dead end. And taking in account the fact that he hadn't passed any forks, the chances were he'd be dead as soon as the basilisk could catch up with him. That, of course, didn't mean that he would go down without a fight!

Not having much else to do, Harry pointed the sword in direction where the basilisk would come from and closed his eyes and listened... He didn't have to wait for long as not a minute later he heard the basilisk slithering towards him.

"_**Petrificus totalus!**_" Harry shouted, sending the full body-bind curse at the basilisk – there was no point in trying to hide, as he knew the snake could see and smell him... Unfortunately, but not unexpectedly, the curse had no effect on the beast, as it continued moving towards him. "_**Defigo!**_" Simple piercing curse, though, made the serpent to let out a slightly painful hiss – apparently Harry managed to send the piercer into its mouth... Hearing the snake's reaction to his last spell, Harry made a 'mistake' of opening his eyes and looked at the basilisk... And nothing happened, aside from him noticing that the great serpent had slithered even closer to him, and was getting ready to swallow him...

Then it hit him: Voldemort wasn't afraid of looking into the eyes of the basilisk because he was a parselmouth, just like him. So he was immune, more or less, to the infamous death gaze of a basilisk! Too bad, right now this little piece of knowledge was of a little use to him: the great serpent sprang upon him. On instincts, Harry raised the sword, while leaning backwards and slightly to the right, desperately hoping to avoid being swallowed...

"Aagh!" The young Gryffindor screamed from white-hot pain as a saber-like fang of the basilisk slashed vertically across his forehead, through his right eye, and down to his stomach, stopping just an inch away from his liver... The snake though, had the sword piercing the roof of its mouth, its poison gland and into its brain. And since basilisks aren't immune to their own venom... it was dead within twenty seconds.

Harry himself didn't have much time left as his body was quickly succumbing to the deadly venom. Just as the basilisk stopped convulsing and died, the young Potter felt a pain even stronger than the one caused by the venom explode from his scar. That was the last thing he remembered...

* * *

Harry moaned a bit pathetically as he regained conscious. His head felt like a balloon filled with water to the point where it could explode any moment, but at the same time pain from the slash was gone. His right eye was still destroyed, while the left one could barely see anything as the image was fading away, though he could make out something red and gold near his right shoulder, as well as the dead body of the basilisk in front of him... Somehow he survived.

Turning his head to the right, despite the protests from his body, the scion of the house Potter saw a large bird – his vision was slowly becoming better – sitting on the floor and looking at him. Although thinking clearly was difficult right now, he still understood what happened: Fawkes the phoenix had cried onto his wound, and its curative tears saved him.

"Thank you." The boy-who-lived-again said in a raspy voice, before forcing himself to sit up. He didn't knew how much time had passed since he left the Chamber, but he needed to get back there as soon as possible to stop Voldemort from completing his resurrection...but how to do that?

His head was filled with a great mass of unsorted memories and wisps of emotions that, despite everything, clearly weren't his, but there also were some memories that should be his, but he didn't remember having them... Setting the mystery of the memories aside, Harry concentrated on finding any information that would be useful in dealing with the current Dark Lord problem.

Surprisingly, there was something, hazy memories of various objects, one of which was the diary he saw in Voldemort's pocket back in the Chamber... Following this memory, Harry reached another, this one about something called 'horcrux'. Deciphering it wasn't easy – his current condition being the reason for that – but he managed to get the key information:

'Horcrux' was the name for a piece of one's soul bound to an object that wasn't one's body, and 'Horcruxes' were believed (by whomever these memories belonged to) to be a way to become immortal... It was possible to destroy a 'horcrux', but it required either a _**fiend fire**_ curse, an _**avada kedavra**_ curse, basilisk venom, or a complex ritual...

Well, that was moderately helpful as there was a source of basilisk venom – the dead serpent queen – barely three feet away from him. The problem: the venom was still in the poison glands of the beast... Harry tried to think of a way to make the venom useful, and stumbled across a thought that Godric Gryffindor's sword was a goblin-made adamant one, and had a magical property of absorbing anything 'useful' in came in touch with; and since the sword had pierced the poison gland of the basilisk, it now carried its venom on its edge... Good.

While he was thinking, his body recovered enough for him to be able to move more or less normally – aside from the fact that he felt really really tired... Pulling the sword out of the serpent's head, the young Potter stood up and started walking back towards the Chamber, while Fawkes was circling around him, singing some phoenix song that was giving him some strength...

**~/ *** \~**

Still-yet-to-be-completely-corporeal Voldemort was leaning against one of the many columns in the Chamber of Secrets, waiting for the basilisk to return: he had guided that dirty half-blood Potter into a dead end, and there was absolutely no way that brat would be able to survive the encounter with the great serpent, even if that stupid fire chicken flew there to help him...

Yet, the young Dark Lord found out that he had underestimated that son of the mudblood Evans, when the boy, covered in blood, his right eye missing and his robes torn, tiredly walked into the Chamber with a sword in his hands.

"_**You win this round, Potter.**_" Voldemort hissed in parseltongue. "_**But you will die by my hand there!**_" Drawing the two wands in his possession – Harry's for his left hand and Ginevra's for the right – he cast a double _**avada kedavra**_ curses. The young Potter barely dodged the twin beams of sickly-green light as he dropped onto the floor, while pointing the top of his sword at him.

"_**Defigo!**_" A reddish beam of a piercing curse flew from the sword, forcing the young Dark Lord to create a _**protego**_ shield. Even though the shield existed for a fraction of a second, this gave Harry enough time to create a smokescreen with the _**atero**_ spell. Growling in anger, Voldemort sent several killing curses into the black smoke in hopes of killing that annoying Potter boy, but missed his target every time. He also made a mistake of throwing too many high-level curses in a short amount of time, which left his not yet completed body tired... Apparently, this was exactly what the scion of the house Potter was waiting for, as he emerged from the smoke. "_**Defigo!**_" Voldemort lazily created a magical shield to protect himself from the weak curse. "_**Petrificus totalus!**_" Dropping the shield as soon as the body-bind curse hit it, the Dark lord counterattacked:

"Dodge this, Potter! _**Avada kedavra!**_" Fawkes appeared out of nowhere in front of Harry, taking both killing curses, before exploding into a cloud of ashes. This caused Voldemort to pause in his attacks, and the green-eyed Gryffindor used this opportunity to slash him with the sword, managing to damage the diary in one of the pockets. "Wha-?.." Was all that the Dark Lord managed to say, before he screamed from pain as a golden expanding cut appeared across his chest, while dark-red, almost blood colored, ink started flowing from the damaged diary.

"Die, Tom!" Harry shouted – somehow he now knew that Voldemort's real name was Tom – as he stabbed the man through the diary, making another great golden wound appear on Dark Lord's body... Several seconds later the wounds the 'horcrux'-created Voldemort suffered expanded so much, that there was nothing left from the man and he died with a final, blood-curdling scream... Two wands and an irreparably-damaged diary in a black cover fell onto the floor of the Chamber of Secrets, followed closely by one Harry Potter, while Godric Gryffindor's sword just dematerialized to return to where its original owner placed it before his death...

* * *

Young after his ...forced rebirth Fawkes stretched his wings and took off. The majestic bird picked up the wands and carried them to their respective owners, before fire-flashing Ginny first and then Harry to the Hospital wing. That done, it returned to Chamber and, picking the diary, fire-flashed to moaning Myrtle's bathroom to inform Dumbledore that the heir of Slytherin had been dealt with.

* * *

That's all, folks!  
Leave me a **review**.


	25. Recovering

Here's the newest chapter for the "_**Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord**_", enjoy!

*** Review response**:  
**Penny is wise**, **ElementalMaster16**, **Taboo22**, **jafr86**, **amir22**, **major wallace**, **Hanzo of the Salamander 2.0**, **obsessivegirl73**, **god of all**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
**Naginator**, **Impstar**, **Vukk**, read and see, what happens (I will hint that three reviewers guesses correctly, what will happen to Harry's lost eye)  
**m-f42**, sorry, but that would have been too simple...  
**The Sinful**, well, for me BFG is BFG-9000 from "DOOM II", and that one will not work around magic =P  
**Awsomeness7**, no.  
**Reishin Amara**, I've replied you via PM.  
**Armacryss**, who said about it not being destroyed? As for why it was destroyed before Harry died - well, horcrux had weaker connection to Harry's body than his own soul, so it got 'disconnected' first.  
**Victorules**, sorry, but, yeah, the fight was not as good as it could have been.  
**Still Not Dead Yet**, you can say that those ...are eggs =) (yes, I know that his particular technology was developed sometime around late 2000-s, but, for the sake of the story, let it be there in 1994). Harry got the memories from his own horcrux, not the diary, and those 'think' independently. And yes, I'm writing my own challenge =)**  
Arct1cfox**, yes, a bit. As paper-thin as this explanation is, I don't have any other. *wink*

* * *

*** Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "_**Harry Potter**_" and its characters in any shape or form.

"human speech"  
"_wraith speech_"  
'_human thoughts_'  
"_**spells / parseltongue**_"

* * *

_This chapter was not beta-read yet.  
**Important!** This story is on hold for the next month or so as I feel like I'm running out of inspiration there. So, for the time being, I'll concentrate on my "**Naruto**" stories.  
_

* * *

**chapter 25: Recovering**

Dumbledore was sitting in his office, trying his best to understand what the diary that Fawkes brought from the Chamber of Secrets was... Of course, it was obvious that it was full of dark magic. The question was what kind of dark magic that was, since the diary contained a spirit that could possess someone, and the said spirit claimed to be the heir of Salazar Slytherin, just like Tom Marvolo Riddle – later under the alias of Lord Voldemort – did.

To the ancient headmaster it appeared that Tom had somehow split his soul, and had placed a fragment into the diary. This would explain why Voldemort was still in this world the previous year, even if he was nothing more than a parasitic wraith... And, unfortunately, Albus Dumbledore knew about a very dark ritual that allowed one to split the very soul and bind its part to a physical object... Most likely, the diary used to be a dark object called a 'horcrux'...

He was brought out of his thoughts when the gargoyle informed him that he had a visitor who wasn't either a student or a member of the staff. Telling the guardian of his office to let the visitor in, Dumbledore placed the diary into one of many drawers of his table and cleaned his table from various magical trinkets that he had there while he was examining the diary... Just when he finished preparing for the visitor, the door of his office opened, revealing an aristocratic blond man in his late thirties or early forties with an elegant cane in his left hand.

"What can I do for you this fine evening, lord Malfoy?" The Hogwarts headmaster asked as he greeted his guest. The man didn't greet back and just quietly took a seat across the table from him.

"Unfortunately, Dumbledore, I don't share your cheerful mood. It is always a sad day when an illustrious institution with centuries on history has to be closed, but we can't be risking the lives of our children, for they are our future." Of course, Albus knew that Lucius was talking about only pureblood children. "As the Board of Governors should have informed you, Hogwarts will be closed, thanks to the bastard who started attacking children within castle's walls."

"Oh. Then, I'm afraid, my owls haven't reached you yet." Dumbledore said with a smile. "Today, just after four in the afternoon the so-called 'heir of Slytherin', as well as the monster of the Chamber were terminated. So the castle is once again safe for the children and I see no reason for Hogwarts to be closed." The ancient wizard said cheerfully.

"...I see." Lucius Malfoy replied after a pretty long pause. "If this is not a secret, I'd like to know who was behind the attacks."

"The same person as the last time, Lucius." Dumbledore said. "But this time lord Voldemort was acting through someone else, by the means of a dark object of his creation that had somehow bypassed the wards around the castle." The elder Malfoy replied nothing.

"Very well... I shall be going then. The Board of Governors surely would like to hear about this happy turn of events as soon as possible." And not waiting for the Hogwarts headmaster to reply, lord Malfoy walked out of the office...

**~/ *** \~**

A certain blond Slytherin witch slipped into the infirmary to visit her 'associate'. She'd have done this earlier, though, but she didn't want to be seen by the Weasley clan that were there to see their daughter (who was then sent to st. Mungo's hospital as treating the aftereffects of possession and life-draining rituals was beyond madam Pomfrey)...

Draconica stopped next to his bed and looked at the sleeping form of one Harry Potter, who now had a vertical scar on the right side of his face – thankfully completely healed by the phoenix tears even before he was brought to the hospital wing – and an eye-patch over the lost right eye... She didn't knew what came upon her as she walked up to the head of the bed and leaned over him.

"It was so stupid of you to go and face the basilisk alone." The blond witch whispered. "What possessed you to do that? Sometimes you act so much like an idiotic Gryffindor..." She made a pause. "But, I guess, that is what make you who you are, right... Harry?" Her forehead gently touched his, while she just as gently cupped his left cheek with her hand... But a couple of seconds later she straightened up, putting her normal aloof mask back on, and started walking away. But she stopped just several steps later. "Get well soon,.. Potter." She said softly as she looked back at him. And then she resumed walking, while wondering what had possessed her during that moment of intimacy...

If only she knew that for some reason Harry wasn't as unconscious at that moment as she thought, and had heard and felt everything she did...

**~/ *** \~**

Harry awoke more a day later, and was not at all surprised to find himself in the Hospital wing. Some sweets on the table next to his bed wasn't that surprising too, as he did have friends that would wish him to get well soon... Putting his glasses on, the scion of the house Potter looked around, quickly noticing lack of the screens in the infirmary: it appeared that the mandrake restorative draught was already brewed and administered to the petrified students (and one Astronomy professor)... At this point madam Pomfrey entered the ward, apparently notified by an alarm of some kind that had woken up.

"Good morning, Mr. Potter." She said. Indeed, according to the clock on the wall of the infirmary, it was almost seven in the morning. Harry was looking at her for several seconds, before asking:

"For how long was I unconscious?"

"You were brought here by headmaster's phoenix at about four fifteen in the afternoon on the day before yesterday." She replied. "And now that you're awake, I'd like to finish checking your health, young man." Sighing, Harry just allowed her to do her job, hoping that she'll be done soon and he'll be allowed to leave: honestly, aside from being one eye short, he felt fine.

"So..." He started cautiously when madam Pomfrey stopped waving her wand around him – he had actually recognized some of the diagnostic charms she used, but most were unknown to him yet. "Am I free to go?"

"Oh, not so fast, young man." The medi-witch tried to scold him. "I know you think you are fine, but your magic is still low, and your body still needs rest: phoenix tears, as marvelous as they are, put a lot of strain on your body as they actually force it to heal itself." She paused. "I'm sure you know about your new scar and your eye..." Harry nodded. "Well, I'm sorry, but I can do nothing about either of those. No one can. Also, I've noticed that whatever magic was saturated around your old scar, it is gone for good..."

'_So, she knew about the dark _m_agic around the scar on my forehead, but didn't knew it was a horcrux._' Harry concluded. '_But why didn't she do anything about it before? It's not like it's __m__y first ti__m__e in the Hospital wing._' Then he thought about his memories that Dumbledore had sealed at the end of the previous school year: he knew about those, but was yet to sort through those. '_I'm quite sure that the ...headmaster has something to do with that._' The young Potter, though, decided that listening to what the nurse had to say about his health right now was more important than trying to guess what the headmaster was scheming.

"...-Seems that I'll have you to spend another night or two here, to make sure that you are most definitely alright." Apparently, he had missed some part of her 'speech' while he was deep in his thoughts. Oh, well... He sighed.

"Fine." After all, he already knew that arguing with madam Pomfrey about when he is ready to leave her care was useless... "But can you tell me, what happened to ms. Weasley? I can see her in the ward?" He asked then.

"Well..." The Hogwarts nurse said, while lowering her head a bit. "She had most of her life drained by whatever ritual the 'heir' did, so she was sent to st. Mungo's for treatment. They said that she'll recover eventually, but it's not likely that she'll attend Hogwarts the next year." Harry too lowered his head: poor Ginny, she did nothing (at least, as far as he knew) to deserve this...

**~/ *** \~**

As soon as Harry was released from the Hospital wing, he headed to the Myrtle's toilet and to the Chamber of Secrets, which surprisingly was just as easy accessible to him as it was four days ago. Even the gates that Tom Riddle placed to block the pipe were gone... Well, the corridor was still blocked by the collapse caused by the magical explosion of Ron's wand, but now, armed with Voldemort's knowledge of magic, the young Potter quickly cleared the way for himself, and reinforced the ceiling so that there will be no new collapses.

Finding the exact pipe where the serpent's carcass was proved to be not that hard, thanks to the very useful _**point me**_ charm... The body of the basilisk, despite the time passed, was still in perfect condition, so the scion of the house Potter decided to do possibly a very stupid thing and try to take snake's eye as his own. An eye for an eye...

With a wave of his wand, Harry transfigured a stone on the floor into a glass jar that he knew he'll need. Then he added an unbreakable charm onto the jar, and filled it with saline... Carefully taking the serpent's right eye out of its socket, the green-eyed wizard shrank it down to the size of an human one – this proved to be quite a task, thanks to the magical resistance the basilisk possessed...

"_**Stabilis corporis!**_" The young Gryffindor cast a spell that 'overwrote' the magical properties of the eye, to make the magic think that its current state was the normal one: he didn't want to lose 'his' eye again from a simple _**finite incantem**_, after all. Placing the 'corrected' eye into the jar, Harry sealed it there and placed under the stasis charm. Finally, he shrank the jar and put into a pockets of his robe.

Harry was about to leave the Chamber, when the mad scientist in him awoken: there, right in front of him was a basilisk, an extremely rare breed of magical snakes. He absolutely must at least try to study it! And since the basilisk was actually a female one, it was ought to have some ova. Those would be interesting interesting to study, very much so... So, creating another unbreakable saline-filled jar, the young Potter started the delicate procedure of getting the ova out of the basilisk – he intended to sell the carcass as soon as he could come to Gringotts, so he needed it to be in the best condition possible...

...An hour later Harry emerged from the Chamber of Secrets and continued on his way to the Gryffindor common room. His homework wasn't going to do itself, no matter how much he wished it would. At least now he had Tom's memories to help him where his own knowledge wasn't enough...

**~/ *** \~**

Now that everyone was revived, and the 'heir' was no more, the school resumed as normal. Aside from the Defense Against the Dark Arts, of course, since Lockhart was in no condition to continue 'teaching'. And as all other professors were busy with their own classes, Albus Dumbledore had to be the fill in. At least he was actually teaching something useful each lesson, unlike the previous two professors...

Free passes for all end of year exams (the mark being either an average of the marks the student got before his or her petrification, or 'Acceptable') were offered as a recompense to those, who were attacked by the 'heir', by the Board of Governors. This didn't apply to OWLs and NEWTs, though, and thus fifth and seventh years still had to catch up on their studies as soon as possible... Harry too was given a free pass, but only for his DADA exam, but the green-eyed Gryffindor wasn't upset by this too much...

**~/ *** \~**

On the Friday evening three weeks before the end of the school year Harry finally decided to check a very interesting room that, according to Tom, allowed one to hide anything. This room was located on the seventh floor opposite the tapestry depicting the attempt of Barnabas the Barmy to teach trolls ballet... Since Harry hadn't heard about this room before, he decided that asking someone who knew the castle really well about it was in order, so he summoned one of the many house elves that worked in Hogwarts, to see what they knew about this place.

As it turned out, the 'secret' room – the Come and go room as it was called by the house elves – could do so much more than providing a place to hide things: according to Trinky the elf, the room could change into what one needed it to be. Thanking the elf for this information, the scion of the house Potter dismissed her and started experimenting...

It took him several tries, but he managed to configure the room into what he needed for the ritual to replace his destroyed eye with the one he took from the basilisk. Sealing the door from the inside – he didn't want anyone to interrupt the ritual – Harry took the glass jar with the eye from his pocket and, returning it to its original size, removed the stasis. He then paced the ritual onto the silver pedestal in the center of one of the two ritual circles. Removing his eye-patch he took his place in the other circle. He took a deep breath to prepare himself for whatever was to come and let his magic flow into the ritual circles.

"_**Vicarius meus: oculus!**_" Bright white glow surrounded both him and the eye. Then there was pain, and he knew no more.

* * *

He woke up several hours later – early in the morning of Saturday, according to the _**tempus**_ charm; His right eye felt sore... It felt! It was there! The ritual was successful! Not wasting any more time, the green-eyed wizard ran towards the nearest surface that could be used as a mirror. In the reflection he saw himself, his left eye was still bright-green and human. His right one was now yellowish and slitted, a snake's eye... And looking into it was making him feel weird: apparently, the eye had retained some of its magical properties, though, those surely were not as powerful now. Maybe it could petrify someone who looked straight into it and didn't have any sort of protection from the gaze... But it was not much a problem as Harry decided that he would still wear the patch – he didn't want to be more of a _freak_ than he already was...

* * *

Surprisingly enough, no one noticed that he was absent from the dorms in the night. But then again, all second years were more interested in choosing electives for their third year... Shrugging, Harry joined the rest of his classmates.

The electives they were allowed to chose from were Ancient Runes, Arithmancy, Care of Magical Creatures, Divination and Muggle Studies. And since they weren't allowed to drop any of the courses they already had, it seemed to be stupid to pick mire than two or three electives. But Hermione being her usual knowledge-hungry self went ahead and signed for all five...

Harry himself, remembering his desire to be some kind of a medic – he still wasn't sure which one, though – chose the courses he thought would be the most useful for him: Ancient runes, as runes were used in many rituals, including healing ones; Arithmancy for spell creation and modification; and Care of Magical Creatures, to know more about the ...beast potion ingredients came from.

**~/ *** \~**

The rest of the school year passed without any major events. Harry was getting some weird looks for the first several days after his release from the Hospital wing, thanks to the eye-patch he now wore, but no one dared to call him names because of that as everyone seemed to know that he had slain the monster from the Chamber.

Exams were easy for Harry, thanks to the knowledge he got from Tom Riddle, not that it allowed him to beat Hermione... Neville, Draconica and Daphne – who, along with Tracey, now was a part of the gold-and-silver clique – did well too. Of course, there were some problems with the DADA exam, thanks to Lockhart teaching them nothing, but all members of the DS got O's and E's...

Just like the previous year, the Great hall was decorated with red and gold, as Gryffindor won the house cup again, outscoring Slytherin by almost thirty points. The elves once again outdid themselves with all of those delicious dishes they cooked for the feast.

The train ride back to London was uneventful for Harry, Neville and Hermione with the later two discussing some of the more advanced Herbology books, while the young Potter was making plans for his visit to Gringotts...

* * *

That's all, folks!  
Leave me a **review**.


	26. His lordship

Here's the newest chapter for the "_**Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord**_", enjoy!

*** Review response**:  
**jafr86**, **Penny is wise**, **Naginator**, **Hanzo of the Salamander 2.0**, **Lord Mortensen**, **m-f42**, **blackroselover**, **god of all**, **Taboo22**, **obsessivegirl73**, **ElementalMaster16**, **Highvalour**, **BlackRoseFire**, **cyner2u**, **chm01**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
**Armacryss**, **JPElles**, the 'eye problem' will be fixed. And while not in bed, Harry will not be *alone*.  
**Impstar**, not again. He just has them now, along with his own that were sealed away by Dumb-as-a-door.  
**SimFlyer**, he he he. I've something even more interesting in store for the snake-face. *wink*  
**Victorules**, you'll have to wait for that.  
**Goldrune09**, no animagi-potion accidents, but there will be a baby basilisk to be the familiar of the Ancient and Noble house Slytherin.  
**Still Not Dead Yet**, sorry then: Harry does business with them.  
**Arct1cfox**, yes, Harry has the same knowledge about Voldemort's horcruxes as the Dark Lord when he was banished.  
**Awsomeness7**, um... you meant Harry, right?  
**DanielHimura**, Dumbledore isn't evil in this story - he doesn't steal money, things, votes, etc. from Harry; he doesn't enter him in a binding marriage contracts with girls unknown; he doesn't prepare Harry as a sacrifice to get even more fame... Dumbledoore just tries to save Great Britain. Just his methods aren't good - but he's over 100, he's not as good as he was half a century ago.  
**Cenright**, yeah, some *fun* stuff will start soon.

* * *

*** Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "_**Harry Potter**_" and its characters in any shape or form.

"human speech"  
"_wraith speech_"  
'_human thoughts_'  
"_**spells / parseltongue**_"

* * *

_Great thanks to NARUHAREM FOREVA for beta-reading this chapter.  
_

* * *

**chapter 26: His Lordship**

After dropping his things in the room at 'Leaky cauldron', Harry went straight to Gringotts. It was still an hour before the wizarding bank would close, so he could do some business, even if most of it would have to wait until tomorrow, or an even later date.

"Good evening, master teller." The young Potter said. This time the goblin responded almost immediately, and was much less rude than whichever teller Harry spoke to during his visit a little less than a year ago.

"What can Gringotts do for you, wizard?" The goblin said, rather politely. Most likely, he was just tired from being rude to the _impolite clients_ for the whole day.

"First, I wish to meet with estate manager Goldsaw tomorrow or at his earliest convenience. If needed, tell him that Potter heir is here to speak of a _profitable_ business." The goblin nodded and wrote something on the special parchment he had on his desk – messaging system or something like that. "And right now I'd like to take two hundred galleons from my trust vault..." The green-eyed wizard said as he gave his key to the teller for an inspection. "...And have half of those converted into pounds."

"That can be done." The goblin replied, returning the key. Then he looked down to his desk, confirming Harry's thoughts about one the parchments there being a magical message system used by the Gringotts' workers. "Master Goldsaw says that he can meet you tomorrow in the morning or early afternoon." The scion of the house Potter nodded.

"Very well, master teller. Please pass my thanks to estate manager Goldsaw for being able to organize a meeting this soon." The teller goblin nodded. "And right now, I'd like to visit my trust vault." The goblin nodded again, before summoning a younger goblin, whose name, apparently, was Orestone, to take him down to the vault...

* * *

The next morning, at about eleven in the morning, Harry returned to the wizarding bank for his meeting with his estate manager. After announcing his arrival to the first teller to be free, the young Potter was handed an empty parchment and a blood-quill and asked to write his name – a standard identification procedure in Gringotts. Quickly writing his name, the green-eyed wizard handed the parchment and the quill back to the goblin, who studied the results with barely hidden interest.

"This is most unusual." The teller finally concluded. "Magic recognizes you as Harry (Hadrian) James Potter, but you blood has changed since your last visit. Care to explain?" He said, looking fixedly at Harry's now _scared_ face.

"Not really. Let's just say that I had an unfortunate meeting with a very very poisonous snake and phoenix tears saved me from being killed by its venom." The scion of the house Potter replied... The goblin nodded, apparently satisfied with the answer.

"Very well." The teller said. "As you are still recognized as Harry Potter, master Goldsaw will see you now." Then he turned away from the green-eyed wizard and, speaking in gobbledegook, asked one of the younger goblins to escort his customer to the Potter estate manager.

"Follow me." The younger goblin said, before heading into the depth of Gringotts, guiding Harry through the maze of corridors to Goldsaw's office. Once they arrived to the door, the goblin told him to wait there, before disappearing into the office. A minute later he returned, telling the young Potter that his estate manager will see him now. Thanking the younger goblin for his assistance, Harry entered Goldsaw's office.

"Greetings, master Goldsaw." Harry said, once he was seated on the sofa, and the aforementioned goblin looking up from the documents on his table.

"Good morning, Mr. Potter, I was told that you wished to speak to me today, and that you had some profitable business with Gringotts." The young Potter nodded. "Very well. But before we begin, may I ask about the changes of your appearance? My sources informed me that you played a key role in resolving so-called Chamber of Secrets situation. Are the scar and the eye-patch the results of what had happened there?" Another nod from Harry.

"You are very well informed, master Goldsaw." Harry replied.

"One needs to know what is going 'round him in the world, if he wants to be successful in his business, or in his war." The old goblin replied. "Now, what business with Gringotts did you have in mind, Mr. Potter?"

"Firstly, is there any kind of a test to see, whether my status had changed after my fight with the 'heir' of Slytherin?" Goblin nodded. "Then I'd like to do that test." Goldsaw asked his assistant something in gobbledegook, and the young goblin quickly walked out of the office. This test should be done, as reactivation of a vault of an Ancient and Noble house meant at least prestige for the goblin clan that manages it (and him, the estate manager, personally) and for the bank as a whole. And most often it also meant more gold to work with.

"While my assistant is bringing the test basin here, we can jump to the next piece of business you have with Gringotts." Goldsaw with an unnervingly-toothy grin that all goblins seemed to possess.

"I came to be in the possession of the carcass of a very big basilisk – it is mine by the right of conquest – and I'd like to sell it to Gringotts, for a fee of course." The Potter estate manager nodded, happy to note that his client had not forgotten the goblins' magical word, 'fee'.

"And how big this basilisk was?" He asked, already trying to estimate how much profit the bank may have from this deal... Harry shrugged.

"I'm not positively sure; I was too busy trying to survive to measure the beast... But it was definitely thicker than I'm tall, and, most likely, about forty meters long." Goldsaw kept an expression of mild interest on his face, while in reality he wanted to grin like a madman: this basilisk was worth a fortune! Especially since it was still rather fresh; the beast's poison kept decay away for a long time.

"I cannot say how much this beast is worth without seeing it, but I can assure you that it is worth a lot of money..." The goblin said. "Speaking of money, there should be a report about how your investments turned out to be." Harry blushed: with everything going on in Hogwarts this year, he just forgot about overseeing his estate... Goldsaw, of course, noticed this. "I see... In any case, those turned out to be profitable. I went ahead and increased your share for those companies, as well as investing the equivalent of five thousand pounds into NEC, SUN Microsystems and IBM companies. These ventures brought you four hundred and seventeen galleons of profit, above the money from the companies you yourself asked to invest into." Harry nodded.

"Thank you, estate manager Goldsaw. Now, onto the the next topic I wanted to discuss. I find myself in a need to hire a law firm. Any recommendations?" The goblin nodded.

"Yes. I suggest you try 'Carter, Bridget & Ashford' as they were working with Potters for last three generations. They can be found at this address." Goldsaw said as he slipped a piece of parchment to Harry. "But in case you find their services not to your satisfaction, you might want to try 'Tonks, Wagner & Mitchel'" Another piece of parchment was given to the young Potter.

"Thank you." The green-eyed wizard said. "And I have one more thing I wanted to ask." Goldsaw leaned forward a bit. "I'm not positive, but there is a good possibility that at least one very dark object called a horcrux – it's a soul anchor – is within the walls of the noble bank of Gringotts." Judging by the frown on goblin's face, he wasn't happy about such an object being there.

"Unfortunately, Mr. Potter, Gringotts policies forbid us from checking and destroying items, once they were placed into a vault. But, give us a description of the item, and should it be removed from the vault it currently resides, it will be confiscated and studied. Should the _aruh:gaan_ be found on the item, it **will** be destroyed." Harry nodded slowly. The goblins will not destroy Tom's horcrux right away, unfortunately, but they promised to get rid of it, should it be removed from a vault.

"The items that are horcruxes and might be in Gringotts are either Hufflepuff's cup or Slytherin's locket or both." Goldsaw nodded: the items named were too well known by both wizards and goblins to need any further description. "They might be in either LeStrange or Black vaults." The goblin nodded and told Harry that he will bring the information about possible _aruh:gaan_ to the attention of the king, Ragnok... At this moment Goldsaw's assistant returned with the test basin and placed it, and the ritual knife that went with it, on the table in front of Harry, then asked the older goblin for forgiveness about his sluggishness and disappeared into the shadows in the corner of the office.

"I will need you to make a cut on the index finger of your right hand and have exactly seven drops of blood to enter the basin. It will produce a parchment with the names of families you can claim as yours." The old goblin explained. Harry nodded and did as he was told – although, from being nervous, he almost botched up the ritual by allowing the eighth drop to fall into the basin... For a couple of seconds nothing happened, but then runes on the basin started glowing dimly, while the blood disappeared from it. Another couple of seconds later a parchment with the results materialized on Goldsaw's desk.

"Very interesting." The goblin said, once he finished studying the parchment. "It appears that you can claim the title of the lord of an Ancient and Noble house Slytherin by the right of conquest. You may also claim the title of the head of Gaunt family the same, but that will give you absolutely nothing as their lordship was stripped from them a little more than a century ago and they do not have a vault anymore as well... Their ring is still somewhere out there, though... Once you are lord Slytherin, you'll be emancipated and can claim the title of the lord of Noble house Potter." The young wizard nodded, while wondering, whether he should tell the goblin about the ring Voldemort had turned into his horcrux or not: the stone in the ring did have a very interesting ...'flaw' after all.

"Thank you, master Goldsaw." Harry replied. "Is it possible to claim both Slytherin and Potter lordships now?" The goblin nodded. "Very well, in that case I'd like to claim my lordship over the Ancient and Noble house Slytherin." Goldsaw nodded and asked his assistant to retrieve the Slytherin ring, in gobbledegook, of course. The younger goblin bowed and left the office as quickly as he could without running... He returned just a couple of minutes later with a plain-looking wooden box. Opening it, he placed it in front of Harry, before returning to his place in the shadowed corner of the office.

"To claim the lordship, you'll have to pick the ring and voice your claim. Then you'll need to put the ring on your finger. If it deems you worthy, you will be officially known as lord Slytherin henceforth. If not, your descendants may try claiming the lordship." Goldsaw said. "Since you are claiming lordship by the right of conquest, you are allowed to use another version of your first name, should you desire that, but you must use the surname of the house you are claiming your lordship over." Harry nodded, before picking the ring from the box... It looked to be pretty simple, consisting of two interweaving bands of white and green gold, with a relatively small coat of arms depicting the Slytherin house's crest on its 'top'.

"By the right of conquest, I, Hadrian Jameson Slytherin, hereby do claim the name of lord Slytherin, and rights, responsibilities and obligations of this name as mine. So mote it be." And then he slipped the ring onto the ring finger of his left hand. There was a prickly sensation for a moment, but that was all.

"Congratulations lord Hadrian J. Slytherin of the Ancient and Noble house Slytherin." Goldsaw said when he was sure that the ring had accepted Harry. "And allow me to thank you for giving me a promotion to senior estate manager with this."

"I thank you, master Goldsaw." The new lord replied. "And now I'd like to claim Potter lordship. I'd also like to see the ledger of the house Slytherin." The older goblin nodded and asked, once again in gobbledegook, his assistant to retrieve the said ledger and the Potter ring. "Meanwhile, we can discuss collecting basilisk carcass from Hogwarts. I believe that the best time to do that will be the next Monday, May 31st. Dumbledore will be away to an ICW conference, and no one else in the castle has access to the ward, meaning we can go in and out unnoticed and save ourselves a lot of trouble explaining why we are there to the staff." Goldsaw nodded.

"Very well. I'll organize a goblin team for that date. We shall be departing from one of the staff rooms of Gringotts at eight in the morning. You will be met in the main hall and guided there." Harry thanked his estate manager and the two were now sitting in silence, waiting for the assistant goblin to return with the items he was requested to retrieve... Those were brought to Goldsaw's office several minutes later. First thing, the green-eyed wizard claimed his lordship over the Noble house Potter: after all, he could read Slytherin ledger later...

The Potter ring was a rather thick golden band with house motto engraved on it. There also was a sizable ruby on it, but the ring held no coat of arms of the house. And it wasn't as easy to put on as Slytherin ring was, most likely because it thought him to be a bit young for lordship... Still, after a couple of seconds it gave in and took its place on the index finger of his left hand.

"Allow me to congratulate you once more with your ascension to the lordship, Lord Harry James Potter-Slytherin." Goldsaw said. "Now you have full access to Potter fortunes and estates. You are also a legal adult, and are now bound only by the Statute of Secrecy." Harry nodded; now he could do magic during the summer break as much as he wanted, especially since he wasn't planning on staying at the Dursley's. He'll just have to drop by number four one day to collect his things from the house, as he wasn't keeping everything he owned in his trunk...

"That is very good. Seeing that I now have access to my properties, I'd like to have my penthouse at Queenstown Road and Birling gap summer house ready for use in two weeks max. If needed, have the wards around both places upgraded. The money required is to be deducted, of course, from the Potter account." Harry asked. Goldsaw nodded.

"I will contact the curse-breakers and the cleaning firm." Thanking his estate manager, the young double lord opened the Slytherin ledger and started reading... It appeared that the Ancient and Noble house Slytherin was broke: the only vault contained just two sickles and seventeen knuts, portraits of the previous lords and some magical books (all of those, though, were priceless). There was a single property – Salazar's cottage – but its location was unknown as it was hidden by a charm similar to fidelius.

"Now, before I go down to visit my newly-accessible vaults, I have two more things. First, when it will be possible to have Potter wills read? And second, can I send a letter from here?" Harry asked. Goldsaw looked up from the paperwork on his table.

"To have the wills read, you need them unsealed by Wizengamot. As soon as that is done, the reading can be scheduled to any day you like." The young wizard nodded, filing another thing he will need to do via law firm and his barrister. "As for sending a letter, two sickles – UK, five sickles – Europe, ten – anywhere."

"Thank you, master Goldsaw." Harry said as he gave his estate manager two silver coins, while taking his pen from his robes. Taking the parchment from the goblin, he quickly wrote a note on it. "This is to be sent to Number four, Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey." He said as soon as he had finished writing the message... An owl that somehow appeared in the office landed on the table in front of him and took the folded parchment from him. "Thank you." He told the owl, and the bird took off, disappearing into a well-hidden owl tunnel leading out of the office. "Now, I'd like to visit my vaults."

"Rustknife will guide you there." Goldsaw said, making his assistant step out of the shadows where he was standing up to now.

"Follow me, Lord Potter-Slytherin." The younger goblin said with a bow.

**~/ *** \~**

When she unexpectedly got a letter from the freak of her nephew several days ago, Petunia Dursley thought that this summer might be the best her family had had in a long time: after all it was possible that the freak would be finally gone from their lives forever! So, for the first time in her life, she wished Harry luck. After all, if he was lucky, he'd be out of their hair and their lives.

So when she got a note written on parchment this afternoon, she didn't freak out right away, and just read it like it was a normal letter. It appeared that the God finally decided to have some pity for the good, normal people that her family was, as, according to the freak, he found an alternative place to spend his summers from now on, and no one in the world will be able to force him back under their roof... Unfortunately, he still will have to visit her family's house once, to take whatever things he still had in his room. And because that would be the last time they'll have to see each other, Petunia decided that she won't throw those away, like she had originally planned...

Encouraged by this good news, Mrs. Dursley skipped into the living room where the great good man of her husband and her little sunshine of a son were watching TV...

"Something happened, dear?" Vernon asked as he looked at his wife, his eyes locking onto the piece of parchment in her hands.

"Yes. The freak will no longer sully our house with his ungrateful presence anymore!" She replied.

* * *

That's all, folks!  
Leave me a **review**.


	27. Back to the Chamber

Here's the newest chapter for the "_**Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord**_", enjoy!

*** Review response**:**  
Naginator**, **Kine X**, **god of all**, **Impstar**, **ElementalMaster16**, **Awsomeness7**, **Penny is wise**, **Danget the critic**, **nokeyunderscore**, **Dark Dragen**, thanks for your reviews, folks.  
**m-f42**, **niciK**, I've answered you via personal message.  
**Still Not Dead Yet**, in my understanding, right now Harry exists as two persons in the eyes of the law: he's both Harry James Potter and Hadrian Jameson Slytherin. But I shall look more into this topic: I might have made an unknowing mistake...  
**Goldrune09**, you have to wait for about... dunno, 10 chapters (at least 6 of those will be the summer before the third year).  
**Heart of Aiur**, there was one?  
**Emeraldfireblade**, the contract will be revoked for ...another reason. As for the other point: Harry keeps being lord Slytherin a secret, and Potters technically are on the same level as Malfoys (a century older (as a Noble house) and more respected, though), while Draconica's contracted is from a house that has a higher standing. What is that house will be revealed in about 5 chapters.

* * *

*** Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "_**Harry Potter**_" and its characters in any shape or form.

"human speech"  
"_wraith speech_"  
'_human thoughts_'  
"_**spells / parseltongue**_"

* * *

_Great thanks to NARUHAREM FOREVA for beta-reading this chapter.  
_

* * *

**chapter 27: Back to the Chamber**

Harry spent several hours in the Slytherin vault, as he had a long and quite enlightening talk with one of the Hogwarts founders... well, his portrait, but still... As it turned out, Salazar's reasons for denying entrance to the school for muggleborns, at least those who did not want to cut their connections with their families, had nothing to do with blood purity, and were more of a safety measure to protect the school against witch hunters. So Salazar Slytherin was not happy with his house turning into a blood supremacist camp, not at all. He even told Harry to cast Tom Riddle out of the house, even though the man was no longer a part of it anyway...

Another reason why the young wizard spent so much time talking to Salazar's portrait, which, for some reason, was the only portrait active, was the fact that the Hogwarts founder was a skilled medic: he had to learn this to heal himself when his potion experiments went wrong (which they did at least once a month). So he and the newest lord of his house spent some time talking about medicine, both magical and not. And Salazar was quite impressed with the knowledge of the young man in front of him. So much that he deemed the boy worthy of his knowledge about healing and potions and told him where his personal journals were hidden in the vault.

Finally, Salazar told Harry where his personal cottage – and the only property house Slytherin still owned – was. The house was under a charm that was predecessor of fidelius, and while Salazar's portrait was the secret keeper, Harry was allowed to tell the locations to others (they, though, could not spread the knowledge further, and the knowledge about the house would be wiped from their memory, once Harry, for whatever reason, death included, was not in on the secret anymore).

Thanking Salazar for his generosity, the young Potter-Slytherin picked up the journals that he was told about and, after another short talk with the Hogwarts founder, left the vault – he still needed to visit the Potter vault after all...

* * *

Since it was quite late in the afternoon when he finally left Gringotts, Harry decided to visit 'Carter, Bridget & Ashford' after the weekend and his 'visit' to Hogwarts to collect the basilisk carcass. And if he had enough time that day, he'd also stop by the Ministry of Magic to get a couple of licenses to make his life much easier: after all, as he was a legal adult, there was no reason not to get portkey creation and apparation licenses... But those were plans for later. Right now the green-eyed wizard felt tired from his Gringotts business and just wanted to call it a day...

**~/ *** \~**

On Monday morning, Harry arrived to Gringotts. His estate manager, a bit surprisingly, was not in his office, but was greeting him personally in the main hall. Good thing that the bank wasn't working yet, or many arrogant pure-bloods would have had heart attacks from seeing someone treated this well, while they were forced to wait in queues before talking to a sneering goblin bastard... Goldsaw led young Lord Potter-Slytherin through the maze of corridors to one of the staff rooms, where a group of about a dozen goblins, in their battle armor and with various magical tools on them, was waiting.

"We are departing to Hogwarts?" A goblin that looked like he was the superior there, even to Goldsaw, asked with a sneer. "I would like you, wizard, to know that the castle is protected by the anti-portkey wards and you are wasting our time."

"Chamber of Secrets is located underneath the castle and is not protected by the Hogwarts wards. It has its own set of wards, and the anti-portkey ones aren't among those. Most likely because the last time the wards on the Chamber were updated was before the invention of the portkey traveling method." Harry replied as calmly as he could to the fearsome goblin. The said goblin nodded slowly.

"Very well. But if you have deceived us..." He left the threat unsaid, but the green-eyed wizard was sure it would be something he definitely would not wish even to his enemy. Well, maybe he'd wish that to Voldemort... After providing the goblins with the most accurate coordinates of the Chamber he could produce, Harry watched with great interest how they created the portkey to take the group to the destination, his interest steaming from the fact that goblin magic was so different from the human one... The portkey, a piece of silvery rope, was finally ready, and the leader of the goblin ...squad, told everyone to touch the rope. "We will be departing in three seconds."

Harry started counting sotte voce, and as soon as he reached 'three', he felt a pulling sensation, like he was dragged by a hook attached to his navel, while the world around him started spinning rapidly... Roughly five seconds later he was roughly dropped onto the cold stone floor of the Chamber of Secrets, while the goblins were standing like nothing had happened to them. Forcing himself to stand up, despite the feeling of nausea, Harry drew his wand.

"_**Point me, basilisk carcass.**_" His wand spun on his palm, its tip indicating the direction towards the basilisk. "Let's go." The young wizard said, as he started walking towards the pipes leading away from the Chamber... Several minutes of walking later they reached their destination.

"This thing is huge." Goldsaw whispered, as he saw the size of the slain basilisk. "I can easily be sold for at least six, maybe even seven, hundred thousand... Unless you wish for a sizable part of it to remain in you possession."

"I want fifteen square meters of hide, a liter and a half of its blood and half of the venom you manage to extract from it. Also, I want both fangs to be turned into ...sabers would be the best fit there, I think. The rest can be sold away." He said.

"As you wish, Lord Potter-Slytherin." Goldsaw replied, before telling the goblins to start working. "You shall get about five and a half to six hundreds thousands galleons from the part of the basilisk you are selling." Harry thanked the goblin. Unfortunately, he'd have to stay there for as long as it would take the team to do their job on the basilisk: goblins didn't trust him much, and, thus, he wasn't allowed to leave their field of vision... Otherwise he'd have gone to the Room of Requirement and retrieved the diadem horcrux. Oh well, he'll have a lot of chances to destroy the abomination Voldemort created later on... Plus he planned to bring the diadem, once the horcrux in it was destroyed, to Rowena's grave, something that goblins wouldn't allow as the item, initially, was crafted by them. Ravenclaw did only the enhancements...

* * *

Several hours later the goblin team finished their work and had the basilisk parts sealed in several dozens of big jars that were then shrunk, so that the goblins would be able to carry them. The venom that was taken from the carcass was split into two bottles that looked like they were a liter each. One of those was given to Harry right away, and the green-eyed wizard, after making sure that the bottle was charmed unbreakable, shrank it and put it into one of the pockets of his robes.

The group then returned to the main Chamber, and the goblins turned the rope that brought them there into another portkey to get them back to Gringotts... Once again the voyage by portkey left Harry in a heap on the floor and feeling nauseous, so he was starting to have second thoughts about using this method of traveling ever again... Still, portkeys were useful when you needed to get the hell out of the area, so, he decided, he would still get a license. Just in case... Once he was back to his feet, Goldsaw lead him to his office: there were some things that they needed to discuss, and Harry had several arrangements to make.

"So, let us finalize the deal." Goldsaw said, once they both were seated in his office. "First, which vault do you want the money to be deposited in? I would suggest the Slytherin vault as it will give you better percentage." The green-eyed wizard nodded.

"Then do so." After a small pause he added. "And have the materials I asked for deposited there as well. I will take my bottle of venom with me, though."

"Very well." The goblin said. "Now onto your ...sabers. First, crafting those will not be cheap. The money will be deducted from your Slytherin vault." Harry nodded: that was obvious. "And you know our rules about the ownership, right?" The young wizard nodded again.

"Yes, I do. But I would still like to propose an alternative." Goldsaw leaned forward, wanting to know what the human will say. "I propose a shared ownership. I will hold one of the swords until I fulfill the mission I need it for. Then I want the both sabers to be put on display in some conference hall in Gringotts or something – I'm sure, your master will make those sabers to be pieces of art. Meanwhile house Slytherin and Gringotts will own fifty percent of the pair each. The sabers can't be moved without explicit agreement of both sides, and should one of the sides break the deal, it forfeits the sabers to the other forever." Goldsaw nodded: this could be arranged, especially since the weapons would be stored at Gringotts anyway.

"I shall speak to out smiths about this. I will not promise it, but I will try to arrange the things as you propose."

"Thank you." Harry replied. "I also want a pair of wristbands with Slytherin coat of arms in silver to be made from the basilisk hide that is for sale. If those can be made before tomorrow midnight, I'll pay double of their normal price." Of course he knew that sending those as a gift to Draconica would be a bit too forward and more than a bit too much at their current state of 'friendship', but it was just so damn hard to think of any other good gift for her birthday... Plus she had helped him in uncovering the secrets of the Chamber, so she should have her own share of goods from the basilisk.

"Thank can be arranged." Goldsaw said. "Do you want the price to be deducted from the Slytherin vault as well." Harry nodded... At this moment a scroll appeared on goblin's desk. He picked it up and, unrolling, read the contents. "Gringotts is willing to pay six hundred and nine thousand, five hundred and thirty galleons for the parts of the basilisk you are selling." Of course, goblins will resell those at a much higher price later. "The sabers will cost you anywhere between fifty and seventy thousand, and the wristbands will make you another one thousand poorer."

"Now that I know how much money I get from the deal, I'd like to make some more arrangements." Harry said, while he started writing a list on the parchment he had on the coffee table in front of him. "I want each of these persons to get five thousands galleons." The green-eyed wizard said as he gave Goldsaw the list of the students that had been petrified by the basilisk. "If they have their personal vault, deposit the money there. If not, open a vault for them and charge the Slytherin vault for that. I want it all be done so that _only they_ can access their money in the vaults." The goblin nodded, while taking notes about his clients wants. "I want a further five thousand to be given to a Ms. Hermione Granger and one Mr. Neville Longbottom. Ms. Draconica Malfoy and Ms. Daphne Greengrass should be given five thousand each as well." He made another small pause. "Also, send fifteen thousand galleons to ms. Aurora Sinistra with the same access rules. Five hundred are to be sent to Mr. Argus Filch. Finally, I want the treatment of Ms. Ginerva Weasley to be paid from the Slytherin vault for as long as it is under fifteen thousands." Another pause. "And now that I think of it, send fifty galleons to Mr. Ronald Weasley." Goldsaw nodded.

"That will be arranged." He said. "Depending on how much the creation of the sabers will cost, the total amount of money remaining in the Slytherin vault will be between four hundred thirty two thousand, nine hundreds and seventy five galleons two sickles and seventeen knuts, or four hundred fifty two thousand, nine hundred and seventy five galleons, two sickles, and seventeen knuts." The young lord Potter-Slytherin nodded: no matter how much money he had spent today, he still had more than enough left from the basilisk alone...

"Thank you, master Goldsaw." The green-eyed wizard said. "Now I'd like to discuss the investment politics for the house Slytherin." The goblin nodded. "I'm very pleased with how you've been handling Potter investments so far, so I think that having Slytherin money work the same way will be profitable for us both."

"Indeed. I shall make the arrangements for your investments." Goldsaw replied. "Will the muggle equivalent of twenty thousand galleons invested into each muggle firm be to your liking?"

"Yes, thank you." Harry said. "That would be all. I shall no longer spend your valuable time, senior estate manager Goldsaw." And after bowing to the him, he headed back to the main hall of Gringotts, accompanied there by the assistant goblin.

**~/ *** \~**

Arthur Weasley was leaving his 'department' in the Ministry of Magic, already in the atrium, when he saw a box of forms near the wand-weighing orderly's table. Being a bit curious as it wasn't there in the morning, the redhead approached it and read a piece of parchment that was explaining the purpose of this box: apparently, the ministry decided to hold a lottery for its workers with a prize fund of one thousand galleons…and participating in this lottery was absolutely free.

Not thinking much more about this, Arthur conjured a piece of parchment and scribbled his name and occupation in the ministry, before dropping his 'form' into the box. Surely, the chances of him winning the money were barely above zero, but it didn't cost him anything, and, should he happen to win... With Ginny being in a coma at St. Mungo's, his family needed all the money they could get.

**~/ *** \~**

Even though he should have started writing his Potions essay that _Professor_ Snape had given to them – two feet of parchment on a group of commonly used moderately-difficult medical potions, such as the star grass salve and the wound-cleaning potion – Harry was reading Salazar's journals instead. For one, he felt too tired from the today's events to write something more than a couple of sentences. That and the journals of the Hogwarts founder were much more interesting...

Plus, the young wizard felt that after he had completed his Charms and Transfiguration essays over the weekend, he could allow himself to laze a bit. True, he had some grand plans for the summer, but he couldn't start on them in the next couple of weeks anyway, and so with a third of his homework already done, one day of doing nothing wouldn't mean much of anything at all...

Another thing that drew Harry to the journals was a unique chance to catch the occasional glimpse of the lives of the Hogwarts founders – those among the greatest wizard and witches of the European history – on the old pages, among the potions, spells and rituals recorded by Salazar Slytherin himself. Who would miss such a chance?

Still, tomorrow he was going to contact 'Carter, Bridget & Ashford' firm, and needed to be prepared for the meeting – their services weren't cheap and he wasn't about to waste either his or their time by stuttering while trying to figure what to say next. So the green-eyed wizard reluctantly put the journal away, not forgetting to bookmark the page he was reading, and pulled a piece of parchment to write down the things he'll need to talk about tomorrow.

From the information given by the goblins, he knew that long-standing partnership the house Potter had with the firm was a sign that they were doing their job well and should be trusted with his legal business, so continuing this partnership would be most definitely beneficial and he should do his best to ensure that it happens. Not right away, of course.

Once he would have the partnership reestablished, he needed the wills of his parents to be unsealed: with him being a lord of either of his houses, there should be reason enough for that, but it would be better if those experienced with how the Wizengamot works would present his case.

There was another thing, related to the Wizengamot that needed to be dealt with. While he was accepted by his Potter ring, he did not believe was ready to become a part of the Magical Britain's governing body. That and he definitely couldn't be attending sessions when he is at Hogwarts, so he needed a proxy. Asking a law firm to find one seemed to be so much better than looking for one himself... He would have done the same for his lord Slytherin title as well, but he didn't want to reveal it just yet. Maybe several years later, though...

Finally, Harry wanted to bring Dumbledore to justice. The old man did several things that were against the law, including memory-charming him and his friends, and needed to be punished for that: no matter how good his goals might be, the ends were not justifying the means that the Hogwarts headmaster was using, and since he wasn't above the law... Bringing such a politically powerful, well-loved and intelligent and sneaky man down would not be easy, so a solid case should be built first, and that would be yet another task for the 'Carter, Bridget & Ashford' firm.

Looking over the list he had written, Harry was satisfied with what he had written down. Of course, there were other things that needed to be addressed, but they were minor compared to these ones, so they could wait... Nodding to himself, the green-eyed wizard began more in-depth planning of what he was to say tomorrow...

* * *

That's all, folks!  
Leave me a **review**.


	28. Busy day

Here's the newest chapter for the "_**Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord**_", enjoy!

*** Review response:  
Naginator**, **Lupinesence**, **ElementalMaster16**, **Kine X**, **Emeraldfireblade**, **Still Not Dead Yet**, **Elfen Sky**, **Penny is wise**, **kemoksy**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
**Awsomeness7**, **loginanout**, I've answered your reviews via personal messages.  
**obsessivegirl73**, he got almost twice the amount of Potter vaults as it is. Though, I admit, I made some calculations later, Gringotts can sell the beast at **2500%** of the price they bought it from Harry... But, anyway, let's forget about that little bit, OK?  
**god of all**, one update per week. =) I need some *free time* for my studies too.  
**twilightnemo**, I, though, think, I did mention that. If not - half of this chapter is dedicated to that.

* * *

*** Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "_**Harry Potter**_" and its characters in any shape or form.

"human speech"  
"_wraith speech_"  
'_human thoughts_'  
"_**spells / parseltongue**_"

* * *

_This chapter is not beta-read yet.  
_

* * *

** chapter 28: Busy day**

The bells jingled as Harry entered the reception area of 'Carter, Bridget & Ashford' law firm office building. He was immediately greeted by a pretty brown-haired witch, who looked like was not even five years out of Hogwarts. For a moment she looked like she wanted to ask what did he want, but then she recognized him.

"Oh, yes, Mr. Potter, Gringotts informed us that you may be coming here. Unfortunately, they did not provide us with the time of your visit, so we could not arrange an appointment for you." The witch said. "Ms. Bridget has an appointment right now, but she should be free in like twenty minutes. Are you willing to wait?" Harry nodded: while he had hoped to visit the Ministry today as well, this was more important – his licenses could wait until tomorrow.

"Yes, thank you." The receptionist witch quickly wrote something on a piece of parchment on her desk – a message to ms. Bridget? – before turning her attention back to the young wizard in front of her.

"Were you informed about the prices?" The receptionist witch asked him then. The young lord Potter-Slytherin nodded: while fifteen galleon per hour seemed like a bit too much, it actually gave the barristers about as much money as a major department head's secretary earned, so it all was fair.

"Yes, I was. Goblins are meticulous – in a good way, of course – if nothing else. They had informed me about your rates when they suggested I contact your firm."

* * *

Twenty five minutes later ms. Bridget's current client – a big but otherwise quite plain man in his late fifties – came down the stairs from the second floor where the offices were. Still, the receptionist witch told Harry to wait till his (possible) barrister was ready to see him. Finally, another five minutes later, the witch told him that he could go.

Thanking the witch, the young Potter-Slytherin rose from the chair he was sitting in as he was waiting and headed upstairs. While the reception area didn't have any really impressive décor, the second floor, where the four offices – nameplates on the doors said that the offices belonged to Mr. Samuel Carter, Mr. Howard L Bridget, ms. Violet L Bridget and Mr. Leonardo Ashford – was decorated in such a way that no one will have any doubts that the firm was old and prosperous.

Harry politely knocked on the door leading to ms. Bridget's office. And after she told him to, he entered her office... It was a pretty large room, with one wall hidden behind and enormous bookcase, filled with books on magical and muggle law for pretty much every civilized country in the world. There also was a great number of thick folders, most likely containing data on various clients of the firm. All of those folders being under the most powerful encryption, copyright and all-round protective charms, of course. The wall across from the bookcase had an ornate clock on it, as well as a couple of scenery paintings. Minibar was also there. The third wall, the one across from the entrance, had windows, showing the Diagon alley. The big mahogany table, with some documents on it, but mostly clean, was there in front of the windows. Behind the said table a big leather armchair in which ms. Bridget was sitting, while two, albeit simpler, armchairs were in front of the table for her clients to sit in.

Ms. Violet L Bridget herself was a face of a prosperous firm. She was pretty young – still in her early twenties – and beautiful aristocratic-looking woman with blue eyes and dark-blond hair that was made into a single braid. She was wearing what looked to be a mixture between gray muggle business suit and high-quality wizarding robes. She also had elegant glasses that currently were resting on her table.

"Good morning." Harry greeted her.

"Good morning, Mr. Potter." She replied. "I was told, that you have some important business." The young wizard nodded. "Shall we begin then?" She asked, while putting her glasses back on.

"Very well." Harry replied. "My predecessors tell only good things about your firm in their journals, and I have no reason to for me the things will be different. But I still would like to see how you work, before signing any long-term partnership contracts. No offense." Violet nodded

"None taken." She said simply: the boy in front of her seemed to intelligent and cunning, the qualities she liked in her 'partners' (unless those were used against her and hers somehow, of course). "Please continue."

"The first thing I need your help with is unsealing my parents' wills and executing them. This will not be as easy as it may sound, as Albus Dumbledore had sealed those not a weak after my parents' death and seems to think that the wills are better this way." Harry made a small pause. "I will make a request about unsealing once I stand in front of Wizengamot as lord Potter, but I feel that having some help from someone with more experience in magical law would be beneficial." Ms. Bridget nodded in agreement.

"Of course, my father and I will help you there. James and Lily Potter were our valuable client." The blond witch replied, while writing his request down onto the parchment."And executing their wills will be a great honor to our firm." Harry nodded.

"Thank you. I also find myself in need of a reliable proxy for my Potter seat on Wizangamot – I'm still a Hogwarts student and, thus, confined to the castle for nine months a year. I believe that your firm can help me in finding someone whom I can trust to vote as house Potter would." He said.

"What kind of a person are you looking for?" Violet asked, while picking another parchment for her notes.

"First of all, I want someone who will not be swayed by bribes, for I am sure that there will be those willing to buy 'my' votes. The proxy I'm looking for should be someone who agrees that some progress is needed by the magical world, but also he or she must understand that doing it quickly – like Dumbledore and his followers want to – will only be met with great resistance from traditionalists, and forcing the issue that way will not do much good... In other words, my proxy should believe that _slow and steady_ progress is the way to keep magical world from decadence." The young Potter said.

"I believe we can find someone like that." Ms. Bridget replied as she was taking notes about her customer's request. "Should I arrange meetings with the candidates once I'm sure that they fit your criteria?" Harry shook his head.

"Thank you, but no. Just forward me their names and, if possible, addresses. I'd like to arrange the meetings myself... I will be informing you when I have had a meeting, and its results." The witch nodded.

"Very well." She said. "Anything else?" Harry nodded.

"I need your firm to build a case against Albus Dumbledore." Violet looked very surprised. "Let me explain." The green-eyed wizard said. "Despite his reputation, the man is nowhere as good as he wants people to think he is. He did put me and my friends under illegal memory charms – I'm only aware of that because mine was broken. Another thing the I can accuse Dumbledore of is willful endangerment of Hogwarts students on at least two accounts during 1991-1992 school year. Finally, despite my protests, he insisted that I return to an abusive house for the summer, which can be considered child abuse abetment. I'm quite sure that there are more misdeeds, but I'm not aware of those yet."

"Even if what you say is true, those would not be enough to do anything: these charges are not serious enough to remove him from his position of Chief Warlock. And once the trial is over, he will be able to appeal to himself, and you will be again at square one at best. At worst..." The witch replied. "If you want the Dumbledore to pay for his misdeeds, you'll need to accuse him of something very serious. Otherwise it is not likely that would even be found guilty – he is seen as the hero of the wizarding world, and many people worship him too much to allow something tarnish his reputation."

"I know that." Harry replied. "That's why I want your help with building a proper case. The more evidence and crimes we have there, the easier it will be for us to do Dumbledore justice." He sighed. "This is why I'm being a bad friend, actually. I know now how to remove memory charms, but I still let my friend have one so that healers will be able to give us the evidence that it was done by Hogwarts' _illustrious_ headmaster."

"I see..." Was all that Violet said in response. "So, for now we will be collecting evidence against Dumbledore and wait till we have enough to bring him down." She said after a pause.

"Yes, we will." Harry replied. "And once we have collected enough to be sure that the old man will be stripped of his position, we will strike..." Then he though about what he had said... Damn, he sounded so much like one of those fictional villains from Dudley's comics and TV shows. The only thing that was missing was his evil laughter... "Sorry, that sounded not exactly right. I indeed intend to do Dumbledore justice, but not out of revenge, though it is among my motives as well, but because he is forgetting that he is yet another national, who is not above the law, 'Greater good' or not." Violet nodded.

"All right... So how will we go about this? I shall do my own research into the misdeeds of Dumbledore, and owl you the result monthly." She said.

"That will do." The young Potter answered with a nod. "But do try to be discreet: I'm not sure, but there might be mail redirection wards around Hogwarts that react to specific words in the letters. It wouldn't do if our little plan is uncovered before we're ready to strike." The witch looked at him.

"You'll be in your third year at Hogwarts, right?" She asked, receiving a nod for an answer. "The problem with the wards can be solved this way then: On the weekends, when you can go to Hogsmeade, I'll be sending my assistant to pass the message to you there. It'll cost you some extra money, though." Harry thought about this for a moment.

"Yes, that should work. And the money will not be a problem." He said. "I'll be sending you my own findings with your assistant."

"Very well." Violet replied. "Do you have anything else you want to address?" The green-eyed wizard shook his head.

"No, not at the moment." The blond witch nodded as she signed a new folder with his name and put all of the notes she had made during her 'meeting' with him into it.

"All right then. Now, if you will, I'd like to start on the tasks you've given me." Harry nodded. "Have a good day then, Mr. Potter" Violet said with a small, barely noticeable, smile.

"And you too... And thank you for your time." With a bow, Harry left ms. Bridget's office. Once he was downstairs, he paid the fee for his visit to the receptionist witch.

**~/ *** \~**

After a quick lunch at the 'Leaky Cauldron', the young Potter headed to the Ministry of Magic, wanting to get his apparation and portkey creation licenses today. Since he didn't want to make a fool of himself with the way he usually exited the floo, Harry decided to use the public entrance, and the little walk that he needed to reach it didn't bother him at all...

Finally he stood in front of a damaged telephone-box. Hoping that the things hadn't changed since Tom Riddle's last visit in sixties, Harry dialed the number: six-two-four-four-two. As soon as the dial whirled back into its proper position, cool female voice said:

"Welcome to the Ministry of Magic. Please state your name and business." Not sure whether he should reply into the speaker or not, Harry answered loudly, hoping that he would be heard regardless of which way was right one.

"Harry James Potter, to visit the Department of Magical Transportation."

"Thank you. Visitor, please take the badge and attach it to the front of your robes." The very same voice said, while a silver square badge slid out where change coins usually come. As soon as Harry had the badge attached, the telephone-box started sinking into the ground. "Visitor to the Ministry, you are required to submit to a search and present your wand for registration at the security desk, which is located at the far end of the atrium." After about a minute, a chink of golden light illuminated the descending telephone-box. "The Ministry of Magic wishes you a pleasant day." said the woman's voice. The door of the telephone box sprang open, and Harry stepped out into the atrium.

He was standing at one end of a very long and splendid hall with a highly polished, dark wood floor. The peacock blue ceiling was inlaid with gleaming golden symbols that kept moving and changing like some enormous heavenly noticeboard. The walls on each side were paneled in shiny dark wood and had many gilded fireplaces set into them. Every few seconds a witch or wizard would emerge from one of the left-hand fireplaces with a soft whoosh. On the right-hand side, short queues were forming before each fireplace, waiting to depart.

Halfway down the hall was a fountain. A group of golden statues, larger than life-size, stood in the

middle of a circular pool. Tallest of them all was a noble-looking wizard with his wand pointing straight up in the air. Grouped around him were a beautiful witch, a centaur, a goblin and a house-elf. The last three were all looking adoringly up at the witch and wizard. Glittering jets of water were flying from the ends of their wands, the point of the centaur's arrow, the tip of the goblins hat and each of the house elf's ears, so that the tinkling hiss of falling water was added to the pops and cracks of the Apparators and the clatter of footsteps as hundreds of witches and wizards strode towards a set of golden gates at the far end of the hall.

At the said end of the hall there indeed was a security desk, but the wizard that sat there was shamelessly sleeping, instead of doing his work. Shrugging, Harry headed straight to the lift, managing to fit into one of them with the group of the Ministry workers. A couple of stops later, the young Potter finally reached the level six where the Department of Magical Transportation was located...

The young wizard's first step was Apparation Test Center. The center occupied a large room, but it seemed that only one worker was present there – an oddly colorless wizard, with transparent eyelashes, wispy hair, and an insubstantial air, as though a single gust of wind might blow him away. And much like the wizard at the security table, he was sleeping as well.

"Ahem..." Harry said, as he knocked on the table surface loudly, waking the wizard up. "I'd like to try myself at the apparation test, and, if possible, acquire the license." The wizard – Wilkie Twycross if one was to believe the name written on his badge – looked at him.

"You must be of age to pass the test." The Apparation instructor replied, before trying to go back to sleep. The green-eyed wizard, though, wasn't about to give up easily.

"Does this count?" He asked, showing his Potter ring (the Slytherin one was currently invisible). Wilkie looked at the ring... A couple of seconds later, he nodded.

"I suppose, it does." He said, while standing up from his armchair. "Now, why don't we see if you can pass the test." Harry silently followed the man into another room where the tests were conducted...

* * *

Two hours – an hour for theoretical lesson, and one for practice – later Harry James Potter was having his apparation license safely tucked in the inner pocket of his robes: the memories of apparating he got from the horcrux were really helpful and allowed him to successfully 'jump' from one end of the room to another on his third try (still, it was required to do three successful apparations in a row to get the license...)

Looking at the clock, Harry decided that he had enough time to try his luck in getting portkey creation license as well, so he headed to the Portkey Office.

**~/ *** \~**

Late in the evening Harry was lying on the bed in his room at the 'Leaky Cauldron'. Today he managed to acquire both licenses he needed for his plans, even though it had exhausted him quite a bit – especially after his morning at the 'Carter, Bridget & Ashford' law firm... The young wizard was almost sleeping when an owl bearing Gringotts collar appeared on his windowsill with a package attached to it's leg.

Removing the package, Harry opened it, finding a pair of wristbands he had ordered, along with a note from his estate manager which said that the goblin managed to talk the blacksmiths into giving him the saber with the ownership rights he had proposed.

Making a mental note to thank Goldsaw the next time he saw him, the young Potter transfigured the gray paper the wristbands had arrived in into a more colorful one to wrap them for Draconica. After all, tomorrow was her thirteenth birthday... Once he was done with wrapping the gift for the blond witch, Harry asked Hedwig to deliver it to the Malfoy manor to the birthday girl.

* * *

That's all, folks!  
Leave me a **review**.


	29. Treasure hunt, part I

Here's the newest chapter for the "_**Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord**_", enjoy!

*** Review response:  
Naginator**, **ElementalMaster16**, **loginanout**, **Kine X**, **Goldrune09**, **Penny is wise**, **twilightnemo**, **god of all**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
**obsessivegirl73**, try turning off 'useless' alerts - you'll be e-mailed only about new chapters / whatever else you want. And yes, that's the goblins for ya.  
**Reishin Amara**, maybe. Or maybe not.  
**deadkid23**, sorry?  
**Still Not Dead Yet**, heh, too true, too true...  
**Awsomeness7**, I'm not sure about the test, and I just skipped the details. And the apparation test was also adjusted a bit.  
**Emeraldfireblade**, um... there might be some action in this chapter. But the *main* events of the summer will happen in chapters 32 and 33.  
**Penseln**, I've answered you via pm.

* * *

*** Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "_**Harry Potter**_" and its characters in any shape or form.

"human speech"  
"_wraith speech_"  
'_human thoughts_'  
"_**spells / parseltongue**_"

* * *

_This chapter is not beta-read yet.  
_

* * *

**chapter 29: Treasure hunt, part I**

Draconica sighed: why did Harry have to send her such a gift for her birthday? Sure, the wristbands were looking so good on her and she liked them very much, but they also had her feelings for him resurface – there were some that went beyond just friendship, the blond witch herself was now ready to admit that. Only to herself, of course. And that was something that she didn't need. Especially not now, when her body was going through puberty, and even her considerable self-control wasn't enough to keep her raging hormones completely in check. Still, she liked the wristbands too much to just lay them aside in hopes of keeping her mind away from the sender. Damn you, Potter... Shaking her head, the young witch, cleared her mind from the thoughts about her green-eyed year-mate and got to opening the rest of the gifts she was sent this year.

**~/ *** \~**

Meanwhile, completely unaware of Draconica's problems, Harry apparated at the edge of wards that surrounded Slytherin's cottage, which he couldn't see yet, as it was hidden behind the trees... Ten minutes of walking later, the young wizard found himself standing in front of a two-story wooden house with plastered walls and crust-laid roof.

Despite not being used for the last several centuries, the cottage looked pretty well, almost like it was just built, thanks to the many layers of protective magic that surrounded it. Same could be said about the small garden with a pond that was behind the house: the magic kept it like it should be, preventing the nature from turning the area back into the forest... Harry chuckled. With some work, this would be a really nice place to live at. And he didn't mind doing some dirty work to turn the garden into what it should be, instead of a lawn with overgrown grass it was right now...

Postponing his plans for the garden for the time when the cottage will be lived in, the young lord Potter-Slytherin entered the house. It was just as big on the inside as it was from the outside, not that Harry minded it. What he did mind, though, were centimeters of dust on every horizontal surface... And he didn't know any powerful magic to deal with the dust quickly: Hogwarts didn't teach many household charms, and Tom Riddle didn't learn any beyond those he was taught – why would a dark lord need to know them? Sighing, Harry started vanishing the dust with those weak spells he knew...

It took him a couple of hours of hard spellwork, but in the end both floors of the cottage, along with the basement, where the potions lab was located, were as clean as they could be. During his dusting spree, the green-eyed wizard also made his first 'inventory' of the cottage: three bedrooms (though not very big ones), a study room with a small library and a bathroom made the second floor, while a kitchen, a dining room, a living room and another bathroom were on the first. The basement contained the potions lab and the supply room for ingredients. And most of the rooms had only furniture and some old and empty glass bottles could be found in the dining room and in the kitchen. Only the study room and its library seemed to be untouched...

The rest of the day Harry spent making sure that everything in the house was working as it should and that the wards were at their maximal power – the wards' anchoring stones were cleverly disguised to look like yet another bricks that formed the fireplace in the living room.

The young Potter apparated back to London at about seven in the evening, tired from all the magic he did today, but also rather pleased with himself for what he did today. Tomorrow he was planning to buy for the things he'll need for his new house, which meant that there will be shopping, both in the muggle world and magical...

**~/ *** \~**

It was late morning of Saturday, fifth June, when Augusta Longbottom and her grandson Neville flooed to the lobby of st. Mungo's hospital for Magical maladies and injuries. The reason for this visit was a letter that she had received a couple of days ago that said that her grandson might be memory-charmed – something that the old witch had to deal with as soon as possible: no heir of the Ancient and Noble house Longbottom should have those disgusting memory blocks on him.

"Good morning, Lady Longbottom, heir Longbottom." A blond witch in a gray business suit greeted them once they had straightened themselves up. The older witch looked at her with a critical eye, trying to think why would someone meet them there, especially someone who belonged to the house L. Bridget (they weren't a Noble house yet, but they still were well known and respected for their juridical work).

"Good morning, ms. Bridget." Augusta greeted back, while Neville just bowed, allowing his grandmother to do the talking. "I take it that you being here has something to do with our own visit to the hospital." Lady Longbottom stated in a matter of fact voice. Violet nodded.

"Indeed it does. My client is currently building a case against a certain wizard, and he suspects that this wizard was the one to place memory charms on Neville there. I'm here to collect the evidence, should my client's suspicions prove to be right." Augusta nodded.

"Very well." Was all that she said, before she headed to the stairs, Neville following her closely behind... Violet made a barely audible sigh, and followed the two Longbottoms. ...Soon they were on the fourth floor (where all healers that dealt with spell damage were located). There was no queue to the oblivation specialist, so lady Longbottom knocked on the door. Once she was told that they could come in, the old witch entered the healer's office, with Neville and Violet following her a second later.

"Good morning. I'm healer Arnold Blackwater." The man in the lime-green robes greeted them. "What can I do for you today?" He asked then.

"There's is a suspicion that my grandson has a memory charm placed on him about a year ago." Augusta answered, while making Neville come forward. "I want him to be checked. If he indeed was memory-charmed, I want the charm removed, and I want to know who had placed it." Arnold nodded.

"That shall be done, lady Longbottom." He got out of his armchair and headed to the room attached to his office, while gesturing for Neville to follow him. "Come here, young man." Once the younger wizard entered that room, the healer told the two witches to wait, while he was working and closed the door, activating the privacy barriers so that nothing will distract him.

* * *

About ten minutes later healer Blackwater returned to his office with a slightly dazed Neville going to sit next to his grandmother... Picking a blank parchment from the heap on his table, Arnold pressed the tip of his wand to it and muttered a long incantation for some charm under his breath. A moment later a text appeared on the parchment. After looking at it to see whether there were any mistakes and finding none, the healer passes the parchment to lady Longbottom, who, in turn, gave it to Violet.

"I do not know who told you that Mr. Longbottom here may be under a memory charm, but he was right. There indeed was one, placed sometime around one year ago." The healer said to Augusta, who nodded. "As you have asked, I've removed this memory charm – this why your grandson in dazed a bit right now: his mind is reabsorbing the memories. I'd suggest you spend some time in the cafe upstairs, before leaving." Lady Longbottom nodded.

"Thank you, healer Blackwater." She said, standing up. "Let's go, Neville." The boy nodded and followed her as they headed to the fifth floor. Violet went after them... Once they were sitting around the table in the cafe – Neville was still dazed a bit – Augusta asked Violet: "So, who was the bastard that dared to do this to my grandson?" The blond witch gave the report back.

"As my client suspected, it was Albus Dumbledore." Lady Longbottom nodded, accepting the fact, while internally she really wanted to hurt that old goat: how dare he?..

"Dumbledore?" Neville asked. "He oblivated me and Harry so that no one would know about the stone." This made both witches to raise their eyebrows, asking for some elaboration. "He had hidden the Philosopher's stone at Hogwarts, gran. Didn't I write you about it?" Augusta shook her head.

"You never wrote about the Philosopher's stone hidden at school." Seeing the shocked expression on her grandson's face, lady Longbottom came to a conclusion that made her even angrier with Dumbledore. "Violet, please add interfering with private correspondence to the list of charges against our _esteemed headmaster_." The blond witch nodded, and produced a piece of parchment from the pocket of her suit and scribed something on it with the self-inking quill she had with her. "Now, Neville, what were you saying about Philosopher's stone?"

"As I've said, he had it hidden in the castle." The boy replied. "I don't know why it was there, though... Near the end of the school year things turned into a mess as someone had abducted Hermione... ms. Granger and wanted Harry to come to where the stone was hidden if he wanted to save her. I, of course, went with him, but we got separated before we reached her... I don't know what happened down there, but both Harry and Hermione were in a bad shape, like they were tortured, and our DADA professor was missing, most likely dead." Neville said. "I think that Dumbledore oblivated us to sweep this whole mess under the rug." His grandmother nodded.

"While he could say that he blocked memories to protect Mr. Potter and ms. Granger from the aftereffects of whatever dark magic was used on them, he had no such reason for your oblivation." She said. "And since we already added memory-charming you to the list of his crimes, I will only add endangerment of the children to that list." Violet shook her head.

"My client already added that. According to him, keeping the stone at Hogwarts wasn't the only time when Dumbledore knowingly endangered students of Hogwarts."

"I see..." Augusta replied. "Now, since my grandson seems to be involved with this mess, I'd like to say that house Longbottom shall aid you in doing that old goat justice." The blond witch nodded.

"I thank you, lady Longbottom, for this offer."

**~/ *** \~**

By the end of the week, Harry more or less finished turning Salazar's cottage back into a livable place. He even managed to convert the garden into something presentable, though he was far from finished with it... On Friday Goldsaw had informed him that the teams that he had hired had finished working on the penthouse he owned in London and had already started on the summer house in Birling gap.

Aside from his dealing with his properties, the young double lord was also preparing for his horcrux hunt: he was going to recover the ring first, and then the locket – the tiara will have to wait till the beginning of September as Dumbledore was back to Hogwarts and Harry didn't fancy explaining him why he was sneaking though the castle's halls during the summer... Since Tom was a stronger wizard than Harry himself, the green-eyed not-yet-teen knew that would need boosters for his magic if he wanted to overcome the protections the dark lord had placed to keep his soul anchors safe. And so he was brewing some questionable or outright dark (in the current age) potions that would allow him to match Tom in raw magical power, even if at a cost of nasty side-effects.

Finally, knowing that he'd have to seat through at least one Wizengamot session, before he was allowed to appoint a proxy, the young lord Potter-Slytherin was preparing for the event. He had already chosen which session he will attend – the one on 18th June: it was on the same day with the final meeting of professors at Hogwarts before their (significantly shorter) vacations started. Dumbledore will be there, so he won't be able to prevent Harry from being recognized as the lord of Noble house Potter. Hopefully, Violet will be able to find a wizard or witch he would find acceptable as his proxy by then...

* * *

On Monday Harry inspected the penthouse, and was very pleased with the job done there: the wards were so strong that he could literally _feel_ them, everything looked new and pretty, and everything was working as it should. All he had to do now was to pay the annual fee for keeping the fireplace on the floo network... Speaking of which, Harry was thinking about adding the Slytherin's cottage to the network as well, but wasn't sure about it. Oh well, it was not like he hadn't time to ponder on it...

Tuesday morning the green-eyed wizard started his preparation for recovering the ring horcrux from the Gaunt shack, where it was left by Voldemort. He had altered his belt, so that it would hold all the potions he might need for this little 'adventure'. He also made sure that his dragon-hide gloves were in perfect condition – he 'remembered' Tom placing a rather nasty curse on the ring, and sure as hell didn't want to be hit by it – and added several charms to increase the protection his robes offered, for the curse on the ring was not the only thing to protect the horcrux... The final thing he made sure he had with him were two emergency portkeys: one to his penthouse and one to st. Mungo's, the later set to activate on its own, should he lose conscious. Hopefully he won't need them.

But there was one other thing Harry needed to do before he was ready to go after the Gaunt ring: he needed to set up the runic array for the ritual that allowed one to break the connection between the soul piece of the horcrux and the physical object to which it was tied... The green-eyed wizard was really thankful that Tom's memories had all the information he needed about this ritual, or he would have to resort to destroying the ring with something as nasty as _**fiendfire**_, since his fang sabers weren't completed yet...

Once all of the preparations were completed, the young lord Potter-Slytherin had a late lunch, before leaving the cottage. Since the wards around the property prevented only incoming apparation, he had no problems will disapparating.

* * *

He reappeared on thee dirty path with trees blocking almost all of the sunlight that was coming from a partially clouded sky. He could see a shack hidden among the tangle of tree trunks with nettles almost hiding the windows – all in all, this place looked to be even more abandoned than even in Tom's memories – but Harry also felt strong repelling ward that was set to discourage anyone from coming any closer to the shack. The ward wasn't going to stop him, though, as he was too set on recovering the horcrux, and he knew his (well, Voldemort's) way around it. A dozen steps down the road there was another ward, this one set to deal some real damage to the 'intruders', but Harry easily stopped it from going off: knowing all of your enemy's tricks was really helpful...

Using a transfigured rabbit to set off some traps with really nasty curses that were further down the road, Harry finally reached the shack's door, immediately noticing a snake skeleton with some remaining badly rotten flesh nailed to it. The door itself was greatly reinforced by magic, and the lock was a password based one – in parseltongue, of course – so no one unwanted would come in. Of course, someone like Dumbledore might be able to brute force his way in, but Harry couldn't do that even after drinking his magic boosters. Thankfully, he didn't need to: he knew the password.

"_**Open the way to my immortality.**_" The green-eyed wizard hissed in the snake language. For a couple of seconds nothing happened, but then the locks opened with clang, while the charms, that wouldn't allow the door to be opened otherwise, stopped working... Inside, the shack was very dirty with the thick layer of dust on everything Harry could see. Paying no mind to that, though, the young wizard headed to the 'room' which Voldemort labeled as the bedroom in his memories of this place – the reason for that was a big truss of leaves that was used as a bed by the Tom's uncle Morfin. Next to the 'bed' there was half-decayed rug, with a powerful ward that would try to incinerate anyone foolish enough to try removing it. And, unlike the other wards here Harry had seen so far, this one had no way around it... Once again using transfigured animals, the young wizard removed the rug, revealing the trapdoor. Since there was no wards on it, he put his dragon-hide gloves on and opened it. Inside, there was a small wooden box, in which _the ring_ was residing.

Using the counter-curses from Voldemort's memories, Harry 'defused' the traps on the box and opened it, revealing the ring: it consisted of a thick golden band with a big black square stone on it – this ring was screaming 'wealth', and, thus, clashed horribly with how poor the Gaunt family was in its last days. Also, the stone had a strange markings in it: a triangle with an inscribed circle, in which there was a vertical line... Harry had a feeling that this sign was important, but could not understand why, and Voldemort's memories provided no help. Deciding that he can deal with it later, he drank one of his magic booster potions and, once it was working, pointed his wand at the ring:

"_**Finite morrior viscus!**_" Once the curse from the ring was gone, Harry picked it up (with his gloves on, of course) and placed it into the special pouch he brought with him, before disapparating away to the Salazar's cottage.

* * *

That's all, folks!  
Leave me a **review**.


	30. The world of politics

Here's the newest chapter for the "_**Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord**_", enjoy!

*** Review response:  
Kine X**, **fragglemaster**, **Awsomeness7**, **Still Not Dead Yet**, **god of all**, **twilightnemo**, **Penny is wise**, , **JPElles**, **Emeraldfireblade**, **Orchamus**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
**Armacryss**, yes, you will.  
**loginanout**, I've replied you via pm.  
**ElementalMaster16**, look this spell up on . Or just re-read the end of the seventh book (room of requirement/hidden things part).  
**Goldrune09**, hehehe.  
**Hadrian 23rd Earl of Richmond**, Potters are just a Noble house (they are pretty old house, but they were 'promoted' into the lordship rather recently). house Slytherin, on the other hand, is an Ancient and Noble house. Blacks are another Ancient and Noble house, as is house Longbottom. Bones would be a most Noble house (somewhere between those two levels).  
**biggie1447**, they are studying together for more than a year, and last year they solved the secret of the Chamber together. is that not enough? but the next year they will interact much more.

**AN**: I'm really sorry for the delay with the update, but I had no internet yesterday. Also, this chapter is a fillerish one.

* * *

*** Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "_**Harry Potter**_" and its characters in any shape or form.

"human speech"  
"_wraith speech_"  
'_human thoughts_'  
"_**spells / parseltongue**_"

* * *

_This chapter is not beta-read yet.  
_

* * *

**chapter 30: The world of politics**

Lord Malfoy took another seep of tea from his cup. Across the table from him, the host of this little meeting, the minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, sent a piece of a cake into his mouth... This was one of many friendly meeting the two had, and like always, they were having some small talk up until now... But that was going to change.

"And another thing, minister." The blond wizard said. "I'm afraid that we had allowed Dumbledore too much freedom in ruling Hogwarts... I'm concerned about the level of the education my children are receiving here." Cornelius, softened up by the afternoon tea and some galleons that were slipped into his pockets at beginning of the meeting, nodded, allowing his 'friend' to continue. "While most of the subjects are still as good as they were in the past, I don't think that constantly changing the DADA professors is doing anything good for the children... And let's not forget about the professors themselves: Dumbledore isn't hiring the best ones, I'm afraid."

"Yes, Lucius." Cornelius replied with a nod. "I've heard that the last one was completely incompetent and didn't teach anything at all." The lord of the Noble house Malfoy nodded.

"Indeed. This last school year the children, the future of our world, had to learn the DADA on their own." Of course, that was bad only for the pure-blood children: who needed that riffraff knowing anything? The mudbloods shouldn't even be taught how to use the noble gift of Magic they have 'stolen' from its rightful owners! "I think, it's about time the Ministry sends someone competent to teach our children what they should know about the defense."

"I will see what I can do about it." Fudge said. "But I'm afraid the Auror corps. don't have men to spare in our troubled times." Lucius nodded, accepting this.

"Of course, you show let our brave aurors do their job of protecting citizens of magical Britain from the evils lurking around." He said. "But I'm sure, the ministry can spare someone from the more bureaucratic position for that..." The blond man made a pause, before giving the final reason for Cornelius to do that. "And I've heard that young Potter is not on the best terms with Dumbledore and should the ministry provide him with something the old man can't – good education – I'm sure he will support you over the headmaster." Now Lucius could clearly see the dreams of political power he would gain with Potter's support in minister's eyes.

"Yes, of course, Lucius." Fudge replied. "I'm sure that there is someone eager to help the new generation among my subordinates... Now that I think about it, my undersecretary was very good at defense during her Hogwarts years." Another lie. "I'll ask, if she's willing to take the position of the DADA professor."

"Of course, minister, that's all I can ask for." Lord Malfoy said. "Now, what do you think about Tornado's last game? I personally think that..." The blond man switched back to the small talk, 'preparing' the minister for another suggestion, this time for the new Werewolf bill...

**~/ *** \~**

Harry once again cursed the one who had invented that particular magic boosting potion he used during the destruction of the ring horcrux. Sure, it was easy and fast to brew, but its taste was vile, and the aftereffects were horrible... Especially since he had to take four doses in order to make the ritual work... It was two days since he had raided the Gaunt shack for the ring and destroyed the abomination within it, and he was still in a world of pain and barely able to move on his own, with his magic almost nonexistent at the moment. Hopefully, he will get better during the next week, or he'll have to change his plans for appearing in front of the Wizengamot: it would not do if he, not even thirteen yet, appeared there while his power was barely above that of a squib...

Anyway, with the ring horcrux successfully destroyed, Voldemort was down to four at the moment, and before the Halloween he'll have only two left... Still too many to make the dark lord completely mortal again, but with his snake god knows where and the Hufflepuff's cup inaccessible in Gringotts, that was the most Harry could do.

Not being able to do much other than thinking as he was suffering from the aftereffects of the potions, the green-eyed wizard started planning his actions for when Tom would return – having the dark lord's memories, the young double lord knew that sooner or later Voldemort will get himself a new body... Since killing him without all of the horcruxes being destroyed was pretty useless, Harry decided that needed an alternative way of dealing with the dark lord: something that would take care of that monster with or without his soul anchors... But what could that be?

**~/ *** \~**

Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore read the application papers in front of him. And then he read them again, and even for the third time. To make sure that they weren't a hallucination. After all, it was years since someone willingly came forward and applied to the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor's position here at Hogwarts. That 'curse' on the position made sure of that. Yet, there, in front of him, was one such application. And it was submitted by the senior undersecretary of the Minister for Magic himself.

Sure, the ancient headmaster planned on asking another person to take the DADA professor's position, but for some reason owls had troubles finding Remus Lupin, and there was just a week before the deadline – by the end of the professors' meeting on the eighteenth June the lists of the book the students would need in upcoming school year were to be approved...

Dumbledore re-read the application once more and sighed. With young Remus incommunicado, he had to have someone else take the position. So it looked like he'll really have to hire madam Umbridge for the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor's position... And even though the events of the previous school year – namely Gilderoy Lockhart – showed him that believing everything without a background check could lead to some very bad results, Dumbledore was sure that the senior undersecretary of the Minister for Magic couldn't be anything but good at DADA.

Sighing once again – he really wanted Remus to teach Defense this year as Harry (things appeared that he and not Mr. Longbottom was the chosen one) needed to make some more connections with his family – the ancient headmaster started writing his response to Dolores' application, stating that she was to be there during the professors' meeting on the eighteenth June, so that the books that the students would need for her course would be approved along with all others.

Once he finished his missive, Albus Dumbledore summoned one of the Hogwarts owls to his tower and attached the letter to its leg. The owl hooted and took off and disappeared in the darkness of the night, as it was on its way to deliver the message to one Dolores Umbridge...

**~/ *** \~**

While the senior undersecretary, madam Umbridge was not someone who liked dealing with children, especially those that were not of a pureblood families, she was still happy that her application for the DADA professor's position was accepted. Why? It was simple – with her being the professor at Hogwarts, she will be in position to influence that half-blood Potter boy to make him the icon of the Ministry, and, thus, ensure that she and Cornelius will be the ones in power for a long time... And should the brat refuse cooperating – she would make sure that he will never get a decent job in Magical Britain.

Another reason, why she had agreed with Cornelius' plan to have her teaching at Hogwarts, was the fact this would allow her to at least somewhat limit and control what those unworthy of magic – namely everyone who wasn't a British pureblood – were taught. She will show those bastards that purebloods were the elite of the magical world and the rest were nothing more than a dirt under their feet!

But with Dumbledore and his cronies everywhere at Hogwarts, she wouldn't be able to run her discriminating company in the open. And to run it from the shadows, she'd need to be seen in a good light by her (future) colleagues. So, dumping all of her current tasks on her substitute, she began preparing her speeches for the upcoming professors' meeting...

**~/ *** \~**

Tiberius Ogden, the honorary member of Wizengamot and the inventor of the most popular recipe of the fire whiskey, walked onto the stage in the center of the chamber – on the days like today, when Dumbledore was absent, he was acting as the chief warlock.

"Good day, lords and ladies of Wizengamot. Welcome to the second summer session of the year 1993. Before we begin with the today's agenda, I'd like to welcome Lord Potter to this august body." Those thirty wizards and witches that were in the chamber looked at Harry, who stood up from his seat – it was customary for the new members of Wizengamot to give a speech.

"I thank you, master Ogden." The green-eyed youth said with a slight bow – he wasn't used to the robes that the members of Wizengamot were obliged to wear during the sessions, so he tried to do as little movements as possible. "Lords and Ladies, I thank you for accepting me as one of your equals..." Harry ignored huffs that came from the couple of representatives of the darker families. "...And I promise to uphold the traditions and follow the codes of conduct of this august body to the best of my ability." He made a small pause. "I know that I'm here several years earlier than either you, or I myself had expected, but the Potter ring decided that now I was worthy of it, and so I do try my best to fulfill my duties of the head of the Noble house Potter." Now, this might have earned him an approval from those members of Wizengamot that were Hufflepuff at Hogwarts: he was making an impression of a hard worker, trying to fill the shoes that were now too big for him – after all he was a lord before he was even thirteen... He was about to say something more, but Tiberius raised his hand, signaling that it was enough.

"Thank you, Lord Potter." The fire whiskey inventor said. "Now that you are recognized as the member of this august body, let us begin the session." Once everyone settled down, the acting chief warlock continued. "First on today's agenda is the project of the new werewolf bill, proposed by our Minister for Magic." And from here Tiberius proceeded to read the contents of the document in question, which took almost half an hour. After that the discussions began.

The darker families were agreeing with the bill in that those cursed by lycantrophy should be forbidden from taking the jobs in the magical world and should monitored closely by the 'minders'. The lighter lords and ladies was arguing that werewolves were just as human (albeit, with some problems one night a month) as the rest of the magicals, so this bill was discriminating and would have a negative influence on the ministry.

Having read a couple of psychology books, Harry was sure that since werewolves were actually cursed humans, placing such barbaric restrictions on them would only make them cause more troubles, which was not a good thing... So he was agreeing with those that thought that this bill needed to be vetoed.

Finally it was time for the voting on the bill. As he was the acting chief warlock, Tiberius Ogden was the one to conduct it.

"All in favor of the werewolf bill #93-121." Tiberius announced. Immediately, nine wands were up, all of those belonging to the members of the darker houses. Once the acting chief warlock had them counted, the wands were lowered. "All against the werewolf bill #93-121." This time about a dozen and a half wands, including Harry's, were raised. Mr. Ogden counted them all, before announcing the final result: "Eighteen against nine, the werewolf bill #93-121 is rebuffed." There were some murmurs of disagreement with this coming from – unsurprisingly – from the darker houses, but they could do nothing about the decision. "Now, onto the next business on today's agenda: decree #93-317 about the new set of taxes on class C potion sales..." The contents of the decree in question were read and then the discussions began...

It was so boring that Harry was starting to have the second thoughts about his initial decision of sitting through the entire session – he was going to die from boredom... But he couldn't leave during the hour long brake that would be in the middle of the session, not today, as he needed to make a good impression on his fellow lords and ladies, and running away would only do him a disservice... At least, he could have his proxy deal with this. Once he got himself one: those two wizards that Violet had found so far weren't what Harry wanted his proxy to be.

**~/ *** \~**

The next morning Dumbledore was down in the great hall for some breakfast, while thinking about the professors' meeting yesterday. Madam Umbridge, despite her somewhat haughty attitude and horrible fashion sense, managed to make a good impression on her now colleagues. But the ancient headmaster was not as out of touch with the reality as some thought, so he could see that the senior undersecretary was taking the DADA professor's position not out of a desire to help students get a proper education: she had some other agenda there. Too bad he couldn't know what it was, not yet. So it was impossible for him to undertake the countermeasures – he needed all of the power he had right now for the Greater Good.

An owl carrying the today's edition of the Daily Prophet flew into the Great hall and landed in front of the headmaster, presenting the newspaper to him. Paying the owl five knuts for her work, Albus Dumbledore opened the newspaper and started reading it, while drinking some tea... The werewolf bill was vetoed – good. The decree about taxes on potion sales sent back for the review – not so good as should it be passed, it would make Severus even less pleasant to deal with... The other two bills were so useless, that the ancient wizard didn't care much about Wizengamot's decision regarding them.

Suddenly his eyes caught a familiar name in the mass of text. Rereading the article, Dumbledore saw that, indeed, Harry Potter was mentioned there as the new lord Potter. This was not good, not good at all, as Harry's ascend into the legal adulthood would make it extremely hard for him (Dumbledore) to guide the boy along the way to the Greater Good of the magical world...

Of course, not everything was lost and he still could manipulate the things according to his plan to bring the Greater Good to the magical Britain, but Harry's new status would force him to be extremely careful – more so than he normally was – to ensure that the light side was the one ruling. With the young Potter, the chosen one (at this moment Dumbledore was still thinking that Harry was more suited for this role than Neville), as their icon... Shaking his head, the elderly headmaster put the newspaper aside and started making new plans to bring the Greater Good to life.

**~/ *** \~**

Completely unaware of the old meddling man's planning, Harry walked out of the Gringotts bank. There were two reasons as to why he had visited the goblin bank today. First of all, the goblin craftsmen had requested him to come to verify something about the sabers they were making – and Harry was quite pleased to know that the swords were almost complete by now. And the second reason for him to visit the bask was to pay the last of the money he owed for his Potter properties being cleaned and fixed and re-warded. Surprisingly enough, it didn't cost him as much as he though it would, but who was he to complain about that?

Speaking of his properties, while the penthouse in London was nice, the Birling gap summer house was a place he fell in love with. The house was not very big, smaller than Salazar's cottage actually, as it had only two bedrooms (one master bedroom and one smaller, for a guest or a child), but it was very tastefully decorated and, of course, it was located in a very picturesque place, just next to the Seven sister cretaceous cliffs. There also was a small private sandy beach next to the house, and a pier big enough for a couple of yachts...

Unfortunately, though, Harry thought, this summer was too busy for him to just relax, no matter how much he wished he could – he still needed to add anti-portkey wards to the Chamber of Secrets, and there was another Voldemort's horcrux. He also needed to prepare something to ease the destruction of the diadem horcrux at Hogwarts – he couldn't spend several days in the hospital with his magic drained without raising some questions he didn't want to answer... Finally, he still needed to find himself a proxy for his Wizengamot vote. Hopefully, Violet will be able to find someone to be his proxy soon enough, though he wasn't relying just on her and was looking out for such a wizard or a witch himself as well...

* * *

That's all, folks!  
Leave me a **review**.


	31. Treasure hunt, part II

Here's the newest chapter for the "_**Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord**_", enjoy!

*** Review response:**  
**Kine X**, **deadkid23**, **jafr86,** **Emeraldfireblade**, **ElementalMaster16**, **The Sinful**, **obsessivegirl73**, **fragglemaster**, **Karou WindStalker**, **Shoveler**, **JPElles**, **Penny is wise**, **bowsie22**, **sterata**, **The MIB's**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
**Orchamus**, hehehe, that is just a beginning.  
**loginanout**, answered you via pm.  
**twilightnemo**, **Awsomeness7**, wait and see.  
**Still Not Dead Yet**, that will be not just a storm, but a sh*t-storm! =)  
**xfighter4**, there will be more of those, once they are back to Hogwarts.  
**Goldrune09**, there are more (about 70) members of Wizangamot. It's just not many want to attend meetings during the summer (or any other time of the year for that matter.)  
**jozs001**, yes. It will be used 'successfully' at least once.

**AN**: custom spells:  
_**flammaro induco**_ - fire dome. three guesses what it does =)  
_**ignis iaculumo**_ - flame lance: sends a stream of fire that burns everything in a straight line withing like 90 feet of range.  
_**ignis falciso**_ - flame sickle: creates an arc of fire. Has range of about 20 feet.

* * *

*** Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "_**Harry Potter**_" and its characters in any shape or form.

"human speech"  
"_wraith speech_"  
'_human thoughts_'  
"_**spells / parseltongue**_"

* * *

_This chapter is not beta-read yet.  
_

* * *

**chapter 31: Treasure hunt, part II**

Creating anti-portkey wards in the Chamber of Secrets wasn't nearly as hard as Harry expected it to be, even if it still taxes his magic a lot. It wasn't all that hard mostly because Voldemort's memories contained a full set of instructions for various types of anti-transportation wards – anti-portkey wards with exceptions being the ward he chose: after all it wouldn't do if he himself couldn't get to the Chamber via the portkey, right?

Even though he finished raising the wards early in the afternoon, the young lord Potter-Slytherin did not go up into the castle to retrieve the diadem: Dumbledore was here, at Hogwarts, and being caught by him now was not something that Harry needed. Oh well, it was not like a wraith that the Britain's last dark lord was now would come and take the diadem horcrux away from its current place...

So, once the wards in the Chamber of Secrets were up, Harry used one of his portkeys – already keyed into the new ward – to return to the Salazar's cottage. He still needed to prepare to retrieve and destroy the locket horcrux... As far as Harry knew from Voldemort's memories, it still was in the cave not far from the orphanage where Tom grew up.

Harry was also thinking about how he will deal with Voldemort himself when the dark lord will get himself a new body – the young wizard was sure that it was only a matter of time before Tom will rise again. Without all of the horcruxes being destroyed, simply killing Voldemort would not work, as he will just revert back to his wraith form... Sure, by how Harry had thought up an idea about how to remove the dark lord regardless of his soul anchors, but more research was needed before the green-eyed wizard could tell that this will _work_ – dealing with the Dark lords after your life was not something where you could afford to make a mistake.

Pushing those thoughts to the back of his head for the time being – they would only be distracting him now – Harry entered the potions lab in the basement of the Salazar's cottage with the intent to start brewing a new batch of magic booster potions for his horcrux hunt...

**~/ *** \~**

It was late afternoon of the July the 2nd when Harry finally decided that he was finally ready to go after the locket. But since this 'operation' would require several hours of his time, the young wizard decided that it would be better is he did it the next morning... The next day he woke up early and prepared the ritual for the horcrux destruction. Once that was done, he put on his 'hunting' attire and did a double check of his equipment...

Once he was sure he was prepared for everything that may happen in the cave where the horcrux was hidden, the young wizard apparated to a high outcrop of dark rock, that was next to the towering cliff in which the cave was. Harry walked to the very edge of the rock where a series of jagged niches made footholds leading down to boulders that lay half-submerged in water and closer to the cliff. It was a treacherous descent, but using both the memories of the 'correct path' from Voldemort's memories and his own climbing skills that he had acquired while in Dursleys' _care_, he successfully reached the (much smaller) boulder that was closest to a fissure in the cliff.

Harry cast a warming charm and a charm to keep his clothes water-repellent, before sliding from the boulder into the rather cold water of the sea. Swimming towards the slit in the rock face of the cliff was not easy. Because no one ever bothered to teach Harry how to swim, but in the end he reached the entrance of the cave: a dark tunnel with slimy walls were barely three feet apart and glimmered like wet tar in the passing light of his wand – it was clear that this tunnel would be filled with water at high tide, so he had to hurry if he didn't want to spend extra six hours in that cave...

The tunnel curved to the left, before expanding into a large cave. Since he knew where the entrance to the 'inner' cave was, he headed straight to the flat rock in the wall which was marked with a barely-noticeable rune. Knowing from Tom's memories that he had to make a sacrifice of a blood to enter, Harry cast a small charm to make a small cut on the index finger of his left hand. Then he pressed the finger to the rune and watched as in a flash of silver and crimson an arched 'doors' into the 'inner' cave appeared next to the rune stone. Once the doors opened, he walked through them and found himself standing on the edge of a great black lake, so vast that Harry could not make out the distant banks. The ceiling of the cavern was not seen in the darkness that was somehow denser than the normal one. A misty greenish light shone far away in what looked like the middle of the lake; this light was reflected in the water below, showing that it was completely still. But in only made it clearer that a danger was hiding there...

Walking around the lake, careful not to disturb the water – he did not want to be killed by the inferi that were placed in the lake by Voldemort – Harry reached the spot where, according the Tom's memories, the boat that would carry him to the island in the center of the lake was supposed to be. Running his hand through the air, the young Potter soon found a chain made of pure magic. Once he pulled the chain, there was a clinking sound from the chain (now visible) coiling on the ground that echoed noisily off the rocky walls. Then something was pulled from the depths of the black water: a ghostly prow of a tiny boat broke the surface, glowing as green as the chain as it floated, with barely a ripple, toward the place on the bank where Harry stood.

Once he took a seat in the boat, it started slowly riding towards the island in the center of the lake. The ride lasted for about a minute – a very uncomfortable minute of being separated from the inferi-filled lake by just a fragile boat... Finally though, Harry was once again standing on the solid ground. The island was not very big, barely larger that McGonnagal's office back at Hogwarts. It was an expanse of flat dark stone on which stood nothing but the source of that greenish light, which looked much brighter when viewed close to. This source of the light was a stone basin rather like the Pensieve, which was set on top of a pedestal. Looking down into it, Harry saw that the basin was full of an emerald liquid emitting that phosphorescent greenish glow.

According to the Voldemort's memories, the locket was in the basin, and to reach it, one needed to drink the potion. The potion that would cause the drinker to fall into dementia, and, thus become an easy target for the army of inferi to kill... Of course, the dark lord had also put a way around it that was supposed to be known only to him. Now Harry knew it as well... Touching the secret runes on the basin, the green-eyed wizard made the potion to disappear from the basin.

Reaching into the basin, Harry picked the locket up. Unfortunately, it seemed that he had made some kind of a mistake, as the army of inferi woke up and was now slowly advancing onto the island from all sides.

"Damn." The young wizard swore. "_**Incendio!**_" A moderately-large fireball hit the nearest undead, doing some heavy damage to it. But taking into the account how many inferi were there, it was clear to Harry that he needed some more powerful magic... Quickly drinking a magic booster potion, he raised his wand up towards the ceiling. "_**Flammaro induco!**_" A dome of fire surrounded Harry, destroying the inferi that get too close to it. But a couple of seconds later the green-eyed wizard came to a conclusion that waiting for the inferi to kill themselves against his 'shield' was not a good idea – his protection would fail before the last undead would be offed. Canceling he dome of fire, Harry cast a powerful stream of fire at the closest inferi: "_**Ignis iaculumo!**_" The spell burned the animated corpse to ashes, along with those that were behind it. "_**Ignis falcisco!**_" A sickle made of fire flew from the tip of Harry's wand, incinerating the group of the undead that tried to attack him from behind.

* * *

...The 'battle' lasted for about seven minutes, but in the end Harry managed to destroy all of the undead that came from the lake to rip him apart. Too bad that he had to take the second magic booster potion during the fight – the aftereffects were already kicking in, and they weren't pretty. And he still needed to get out of the cave and return to the Salazar's cottage...

Taking the boat back to the 'mainland', Harry then walked to the spot where the exit from the 'inner' cave was. Sacrificing some more of his blood, he opened the gateway to the 'outer' cave. The tunnel he first entered this place from wasn't completely filled with water, so even with almost non-existent at the moment magic he would be to reach the other end. Though it would NOT be easy, as his entire body was aching from the aftereffects of the magic booster potions, and the warming charms he cast on himself had already weathered and he was shivering uncontrollably...

Somehow he managed to make it to the outside. Still, right now he was on a boulder that stood in front of the cliff wall one could not climb without magic or a muggle professional mountaineer equipment – Harry had neither at the moment... Or did he? Sure, he was going to regret this decision soon, but he drank the third magic booster potion: it would temporarily return his magic to the 'normal' levels.

Once he could feel his magical powers returning to him, Harry apparated back to the Salazar's cottage (well, as close as the wards around it would allow), and ran to the house, hoping to get there before the effects of the potion wear off... He managed to get only to the bottom of the stairs, though, before the aftereffects of the potions hit him with their full power, leaving him lying on the floor, barely able to move at all. Oh well, at least he was at home...

* * *

It was several hours since he had returned to the cottage, and only now Harry was able to move normally again, even though he still felt extremely tired and drained. Still, being curious about the locket he had retrieved, the young Potter decided to see what his locket was: after all it belonged to Salazar once upon a time...

When he managed to open the locket without parseltongue – something that according to Tom's memories should be impossible – Harry started suspecting something was not right. But when, instead of an elaborate construction with two glass 'windows', there was nothing but a folded piece of a parchment, Harry knew that someone had gotten the real horcrux before him. What a disappointment that wasted so much time on the fake... But being curious who else had uncovered Voldemort's immortality secret, the young double lord pulled the parchment out of the fake locket and unfolded it.

_To the Dark Lord_

_I now I will be dead long before you read this but I want you to know that it was I who discovered your secret. I have stolen the real thing and intend to destroy it as soon as I can. I going to face death in the hope that when you meet your match you will be mortal once more._

_R.A.B._

That was the message written on the parchment. And it looked like the author of these words was in a hurry when he had wrote them down in an uneven cursive. But who was this 'R.A.B.'? Since the man knew about the horcruxes and referred to Tom as the 'Dark Lord', Harry made an educated guess and assumed that 'R.A.B.' was a Death eater, who at some point decided that he didn't want to serve Voldemort anymore.

Scanning Tom's memories for the names of his Death eaters, Harry found only one that fit the abbreviation: Regulus Arcturus Black. And indeed, the man had defected from the Dark lord shortly before that fateful Halloween night of the year 1981, and Voldemort went to off him personally to show to his minions what happens to the traitors.

Harry sighed: Regulus Black was a hero in the end, but, unfortunately, the young wizard didn't know whether the man succeeded in destroying the horcrux before his untimely death, or, if not, where the real locket was. Oh well, with the Hufflepuff's cup inaccessible anyway, he didn't a chance to make the Voldemort mortal before their inevitable confrontation. So right now he needed to concentrate on finding an alternative solution to the 'Voldemort' problem, Harry decided...

**~/ *** \~**

It was almost a week since he had discovered that the locket he had retrieved was a fake, and only now Harry felt that he had sufficiently recovered from the aftereffects of the magic booster potions to leave the Salazar's cottage. And, of course, the first thing he did then was contacting Violet and scheduling a meeting with her...

So, on Monday, July 12th the young lord Potter could be seen entering the building where the offices of the 'Carter, Bridged & Ashford' law firm were located. Since this time he had scheduled the meeting properly and not per diem, he didn't have to wait any before he was called for his meeting with ms. Bridget. And once they had exchanged their greetings, Harry went straight to business (almost):

"First of all, I'd like to thank you for the job you've already done. I've read the report you've sent to me, and I'm impressed with how much you managed to accomplish in such a short time. House Potter will most definitely be working with your firm in the future." The green-eyed wizard said. "And, additionally, I'd like to thank you for making an alliance with the Ancient and noble house Longbottom for our little undertaking of doing Dumbledore justice." Violet nodded.

"Thank you for your kind words, lord Potter." The blond witch replied.

"Now, let me tell you the reason I've requested this meeting." Harry said. "I have another task for you. It is not as imperative as the other tasks I've given you so far, but I still would like to see it done as soon as possible."

"What would it be?" Violet asked as she prepared a piece of parchment and self-inking quill for taking notes.

"I want you to clear the name of Regulus Arcturus Black, and get him the order of Merlin second or maybe even first class post mortem." The blond witch raised her eyebrow at this request.

"As far as I know, late Mr. Black was a Death eater. I do not know yet, how I can accomplish this request of yours, nor can I see the reason why you would want something like this." She said, while still dutifully writing his request down. In response, Harry just handed her _the parchment_.

"If we remember the history of Blacks, Regulus was murdered by lord Voldemort himself. This parchment uncovers the reason why the dark lord would kill his minion like that: Regulus had uncovered some of the Voldemort's dirty secrets, namely his attempt at gaining immortality, and, seeing what it was – knowing Voldemort, it is something ...not pretty – decided that he should no longer serve that monster. So he defected to the 'light' side, while destroying the item." The young lord Potter explained. "Thus I believe that he had more to ensure that lord Voldemort lost the war than most."

"I see..." The blond witch said. Then she cast several charms on the parchment Harry gave her and, once she found it to be authentic, she continued: "I'll see what I can do about this. But as I said, Mr. Black is widely known as a Death eater, so changing people's opinion would not be easy." The young Potter nodded.

"Just do what you can. I just want to see the things being brought to justice." He said, and Violet nodded in response: just world was something that her family and their trade partners were wishing for and worked towards.

"Of course." She said. "I'll do what I can. Is there anything else you wished to talk to me about?" The blond witch asked, as she adding her parchment with today's notes and Regulus's message to Harry's folder.

"Well,.. Can you collect some general information about Tiberius Ogden and his political preferences? I think that he might be like someone I want as my proxy; he certainly made that impression on me when I met him." Violet nodded.

"Of course. I will owl you the results when I have them" She said as she added some notes to Harry's files. The young Potter thanked her then and the two told good bye to each other, before the green-eyed wizard left the 'Carter, Bridget & Ashford' offices.

* * *

Since it was still just after midday, The young double lord had some lunch at the 'Leaky cauldron', before apparating back to the Salazar's cottage: his little experiment, which he had started a couple of days before his first Wizengamot meeting was about to hatch and, thus, required his attention... Hopefully, this little experiment of his would be a success, and the house Slytherin will once again have its familiar as the unseen guardian of Hogwarts...

Well, of course Harry's experiment was quite unique – he was using the technique muggles had developed just barely two years ago; wizards had never even heard about them – so there was not a small chance that it would end as a failure. But in that case Harry still had an option of 'creating' the guarding the 'traditional' way...

* * *

That's all, folks!  
Leave me a **review**.


	32. And the world changes

Here's the newest chapter for the "_**Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord**_", enjoy!

*** Review response:  
Naginator**, **loginanout**, **Kine X**, **sterata**, **god of all**, **NaruAndHarrHaremFan**, **SimFlyer**, **obsessivegirl73**, **fragglemaster**, **Super-Saiyan-3-Vegeta**, **jafr86**, **Penny is wise**, thank you for the reviews, folks!  
**twilightnemo**, early December 1993. not sure how many chapters before that.  
**Dark Dragen**, **Impstar**,** runinplace**, replied you via pm.  
**ElementalMaster16**, even too cautious can make some mistakes (like a slip of a finger from the rune...)  
**JPElles**, yeah, definitely. whiskey rules the world!  
**Awsomeness7**, a variation, where two ova are used to produce a fertilized egg. technique successfully performed in the 2005-2006 in the real world.  
**Still Not Dead Yet**, I think that was Crabbe... anyway, this part stays as a canon (which now CAN SOD OFF).  
**Joe Lawyer**,... don't even know what to say here...

* * *

*** Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "_**Harry Potter**_" and its characters in any shape or form.

"human speech"  
"_wraith speech_"  
'_human thoughts_'  
"_**spells / parseltongue**_"

* * *

_This chapter is not beta-read yet.  
_

* * *

**chapter 32: And the world changes**

It was the end of the first week of July when the goblins finally finished their work on the saber, and the next morning Harry had already collected it. The blade itself was a fang, with many runes written in gold on it – to keep it strong and sharp. The handle and the sheathe were both made from some dark wood and had some ornaments in gold and silver for decorations... All in all, this saber was just as beautiful as it was deadly, definitely worth its high price.

The next morning after he got his saber, the young Potter put on his best robes (absentmindedly noting that he would need to by himself a new set of clothes as he had grown a lot, most likely thanks to the phoenix tears that not only cured him from the basilisk poison, but also made his body repair all of the damage caused by Dursley upbringing). Deciding that he needed some more impressiveness, he attached his saber to his belt. Yeah, this was gonna show his relatives what he became without them to hinder him...

Once he was done with the preparations, he apparated to one of the dark corners close to the Privet drive: even if he was no longer bound by the laws about underage magic, Statue of secrecy was still there. And as soon as he appeared in the neighborhood where he grew up, Harry, trying to project the air of aristocratic supremacy as best as he could, headed to the house where his _family_ lived. While he was walking towards the number four, he had noticed that several girls were looking at him with interest, which was addressed to him as a whole, and not just to his 'strange' clothes, his sword or his eye-patch... Shrugging these looks off, the young wizard made his way to the Dursley's house.

Knocking on the door he waited for someone to answer him: since it was a Saturday, his entire family must have been home... Unfortunately for him, they also had aunt Marge over, if the barking that was coming from behind the door was any indication. Oh well, she too needed to see this new him, just to show her that he was _not_ what the Dursley portrayed him to be... Finally, the door was opened. By his uncle. The walrus of a man studied Harry for a couple of second.

"We do not know where the boy is, and we do not want any of your freakishness tainting out house. Get lost!" And then he tried to close the door forcefully, but the young wizard didn't let him.

"Oh, I'm so hurt that you don't recognize me, dear uncle." Every word so far was dripping with venom. "But I'm here to collect the last of my things. Then we will never see each other again." Vernon looked at him, after some heavy thinking finally recognizing his nephew. Opening his door, he gestured into the house.

"Get in, take your things, freak, and get lost." Making a mock bow, Harry slipped into the house and headed straight to the smallest bedroom, which had been his room during his last year under this roof. While he was picking up those few things of his that were there, he could hear his relatives arguing downstairs, no doubt about him... As soon as he had collected everything that belonged to him, the young wizard headed downstairs, only to find all three of the Dursley adults standing there next to the door, waiting for him. "So, boy, is that true that we will not have you in our house any more?" Vernon asked, looking straight into Harry's eyes. The young Potter didn't even flinch under the glare.

"Unless _they_ bring an army to keep me here, I will not be back to your ...generous home." Aunt Marge looked at her brother.

"Are you sure we should just let him go? Look at the freaky clothes he's wearing. As if a riffraff like him could afford even a patch of them. He must have stolen them! And look at his belt – there is a sword! He must be looked for life, or, better, put down right away: will save us, good people, money!" Harry fixed his eyes on the woman.

"These all are a ...compensation for losing an eye in a battle with a beast that wandered into my ...school." He noticed Petunia's eyes widen a bit, before an emotion he hadn't seen there ever before appeared: she was feeling bad for him. Maybe, she didn't hate him completely, after all... "Now, if there is nothing else, I'd like to be on my way. No doubt, you want me out of your lives, just as I want you out of mine." And not waiting for them to respond, he walked out of the house. "I hope we will never have to see each other again." Were his last words, before he disappeared from their view.

**~/ *** \~**

On the last Sunday of July, a small delegation from the Ministry for Magic, led by Cornelius Fudge himself, and a reporter from the 'Daily Prophet' made their way to an house known as the Burrow, where the Weasley family lived... Since was already quite late in the morning, all of the house inhabitants were up, and the head of the family, Arthur Weasley, could be seen doing something in his workshop, while his twin sons were degnoming the garden... Of course, as soon as the 'guessed' passed through the outer layer of wards, Arthur knew that they were there, but he was still very surprised to see such important people paying visit to his humble house.

"Good morning. Something I can do for you, minister?" The head of the Department of the Misuse of muggle artifacts asked. Fudge beamed at him.

"Oh, nothing much, Arthur. Please have your family gather somewhere. There are some good news for you, and I want you all to be there when I announce them." The Minister said. Nodding, Arthur called his family to gather in front of the house (well, everyone but his two eldest sons, as Bill was in Egypt on a mission from Gringotts, and Charlie was in Romania working in the Dragon reserve). Once the Weasley family was all there, Cornelius continued. "As you know, this summer the Ministry for Magic had a lottery for its workers." Arthur nodded: he did enter this lottery after all. "And yesterday evening, you, Arthur, were picked as the winner. My congratulations!" Fudge said loudly, shaking shocked man's hand. Once the minister backed away, one of his lackeys gave Arthur a big bag, filled with a thousand galleons.

"Now, let's have a photo of the winner." The reporter from the 'Daily Prophet' said, with a camera in his hands. "Minister?" Understanding what the man had in his mind, Cornelius approached Arthur again, intent to pose for the camera with them shaking their hands... At this moment, a certain rat that so far was hiding in Ron's chest pocket, decided to see what was going on, and, placing its front paws on the edge of the pocket, peeked out. Just in time to see a flash of a camera. Shaking its head, the rodent hid back into its pocket...

"I believe that my part here is complete." Fudge said, addressing to the reporter. "But I'm sure that you want to have an interview with Arthur." The man nodded.

"Of course. Our readers would like to know what the winner of the Ministry lottery has in his plans for the prize." Cornelius nodded.

"In that case he is all yours." Turning to his lackeys, the Minister of Magic said something to them, and, after a brief exchange of words, they started walking out of the Weasley family property. Once he was sure they were gone (or at least far enough so that their talk would not interfere with his interview), the reporter turned to Arthur.

"Now, Mr. Weasley, I'd like to ask you a couple of questions, if you don't mind." The red-haired man shook his head. "Then, my first question would be this: do you have any plans on how you will spend the money you've just won?" Arthur though for a couple of seconds before replying.

"As you no doubt know, a tragedy had befallen my family this year, when my youngest and only daughter had to be sent to st. Mungo's hospital for treatment... from a nasty curse that was placed on her." He said. "And while some noble man had paid for her treatment, I believe the thousand galleons that I have won should be used to make sure that she and other member of my family are safe and sound and..." Arthur continued his speech, which could be surmised to the fact that he thought that his family was the most important thing in the world. This made the reporter smile: noble men were a bit rare nowadays: most would have spent these money on just themselves... The readers of the 'Prophet' needed to be reminded of what the family man is, and Arthur Weasley was someone who will help there greatly with his example.

"Thank you." The reporter said. "Now onto my next question: what..." And so he continued taking the interview from the head of the Weasley family...

~/ *** \~

On Tuesday, July 27, Harry's Hogwarts letter with the list of the books for his third year arrived. So, deciding not to waste any time, the green-eyed picked his trunk wizard apparated to London to do some shopping. After taking the galleons from his vault in Gringotts, and converting some of them into British pounds – he needed a new set of muggle clothes and some other miscellaneous things that he couldn't buy in the wizarding world – the young double lord Potter-Slytherin started his shopping.

First thing he visited madam Malkin's shop to get himself a new set of school robes, as well as some for casual wear. Of course, he preferred muggle clothes, but in his life there would be situations when he wouldn't be able to wear them... After Madam Malkin accepted his order and promised to send him his robes via owls once they were ready, Harry went to the next shop. Which happened to be that apothecary as he needed to restock his potion supplies and get some more vials for the school year...

When he was exiting that apothecary, though, he caught a sight of a familiar blond witch, who was there for some shopping of her own with her entire family. And seeing that she was wearing the wristbands that he had sent her for her birthday present, made Harry smile. Then, seeing that the Malfoys were entering Gringotts, he continued his shopping, deciding that he'll say hello to Draconica when he would see he again today.

His next stop was Flourish and Blotts. And he was surprised when he looked in at the bookshop window. Instead of the usual display of gold embossed spellbooks the size of paving slabs, there was a large iron cage behind the glass that held about a hundred copies of 'The Monster Book of Monsters'. Torn pages were flying everywhere as the books grappled with each other, locked together in furious wrestling matches and snapping aggressively.

The young Potter pulled his booklist out and consulted it. 'The Monster Book of Monsters' was listed as the required book for Care of Magical Creatures. If that was the required book... he was starting to have seconds thoughts about signing for the course. But if he really wanted to become a healer, he needed some NEWT for it, so... he'll have to attend it.

Entering the shop, he had purchased all of the books he'd need for his third year (including 'the Monster book of Monsters', much to the shop owner's discontent), along with a couple of extras, mainly for DADA as the experience was telling him he should be prepared to study it on his own once again. He also got a couple of more advanced books on magical healing for his self-study, as well as some extra books on the Ancient runes. Finally, Harry bought a rare Herbology book as a gift to Neville and a charmed note book in a red dragonhide cover for Hermione. So far, though, he had no idea of what to get for the two newest members of what now could be called 'the six': Daphne and Tracey. Oh well, he still had some time to come up with ideas...

His next stop was a Magical Menagerie, where he got some owl treats for Hedwig and some food for his pet project: it did hatch a couple of day ago, and now he needed to mother it till it was big enough to protect itself from whatever beasts were there in the Forbidden forest and could go down to the Chamber of Secrets – Harry had found that there was a tunnel that connected the pipes under the castle with a small cave somewhere deep in the forest.

His final stop in the Diagon alley was the shop that sold parchments and writing utensils. Of course, with the enchanted muggle pen he had, Harry didn't need any (new) quills or inks, but that didn't mean the didn't need parchments to write on as well... Plus there was a couple of interesting things that the young Potter bought as well. As he was exiting the shop, he once again saw Draconica. This time, though, she saw him as well. The two nodded a 'good day' to each other, before they were on their ways. Harry headed to the 'Leaky Cauldron' for some lunch, before he'd go into the muggle world for his shopping there...

As it turned out, a teen of thirteen (though Harry now looked closer to fourteen for some reason), with a scar across his right eye and an eye-patch there was attracting a lot of attention from the people in the streets of London, far more than the young wizard was comfortable with, but there was nothing he could do about it, so he just tried to complete his shopping there as fast as possible. Still, getting a couple of sets of casual wear and some training clothes – if nothing else, being fit will allow him to last longer in a magical fight by dodging his opponent's spells. But according to Salazar's journals, magic was intimately tied to the physical body, so the better this body was, the stronger was the magic – took some time...

**~/ *** \~**

On July 29th, it was Weasleys' turn to do the shopping. Since Ginny was in st. Mungo's hospital and, according to the healers, won't be able to leave it for several more months, buying school things for her seemed to be more or less unreasonable... Still, Molly got some books on magical theory so that her only daughter would not be too behind once she was allowed by healers to continue her schooling.

Her other children, though, needed the whole sets of books, potion ingredients, some new robes and lots of quills and parchments. And Ron needed a new wand as his was broken (completely) at the end of the previous year... At least with the money Arthur had won and those fifty galleons that someone had sent to Ron, she had enough money to afford all of the things. And not even second-hand, which made all of her children, even Percy, though he was trying to remain impassive, happy.

After buying everything else, and sending three of her older sons back to the Burrow via the public floo at the 'Leaky Cauldron', Molly brought Ron to Olivanders' wand shop. After greeting the red-haired woman in his usual manner – saying her maiden name and recalling her wand – the old wand maker turned to Ron.

"Unfortunately, I don't recall you ever being to my shop before, Mr. Weasley." Molly nodded.

"My youngest was using a wand from his older brother's." Seeing that Olivanders wanted to say something about the wizard needing to have his own wand, she hastily added. "Don't worry, that was a good match... But this wand broke this spring." The elderly wizard shook his head.

"That's bad... But don't worry, young man, somewhere in this shop there is your new wand. Let's find it. You're right handed, right?" He asked, summoning his measurement tools. Ron just nodded. Once the young redhead was measured in every way possible, Olivanders brought him the first wand to try: "How about this one? Willow and unicorn tail-hair, fourteen inches." The wand produced some red sparks, but the old wand makers thought that it was not the best match. "Hm... no, not this one. How about..." And so Ron had to try another wand. And then another... And another. After eight wands, it appeared that finding him a match was harder than Olivanders thought. ...As he was looking for the next wand to give to Ron to try, his eyes landed on a certain wand. "Hm... Why not?" He said to himself, before handing the wand to the youngest Weasley boy. "Holly and phoenix feather, eleven inches." Much to his surprise, this wand produced by far the best result so far. "Looks like we've found your match, Mr. Weasley." Olivanders said, before turning to Molly. "This will be seven galleons."

Once the Weasleys left his shop, the old wand maker moved to his cabinet: he needed to write a letter to Dumbledore – he had promised to inform the man when this wand was sold, after all...

**~/ *** \~**

Two days later, it was Harry's birthday, and he was going through the gifts his friends had sent him. He got some rare and quite expensive herbal extracts from Neville and some books on newest developments of muggle medicine from Hermione. Daphne, Tracey and Susan collectively sent him a thick tome on the history of magical law from before Merlin was born and to our days. The Gryffindor Flying Foxes, aka the chaser trio, sent him a decorated in an ancient Greek style casket with a runic puzzle instead of a lock, and a group photo of themselves in rather skimpy bikinis made on some beach (probably in Greece). Oliver gifted him new and enchanted for durability seekers gloves. The rest of Harry's friends, mostly Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws, sent him various sweets...

But there was one very special gift Harry received this year, and it was from Draconica. The blond witch sent him silver pocket watch with a Potter coat of arms engraved on the front lid... The green-eyed wizard wasn't ignorant of the significance of such gift: by gifting him this watch, Draconica was saying that she was accepting him as an adult...

* * *

That's all, folks!  
Leave me a **review**.


	33. Things go downhill

Here's the newest chapter for the "_**Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord**_", enjoy!

*** Review response:  
jafr86**, **Penny is wise**, **Danget the critic**, **Naginator**, **ElementalMaster16**, **loginanout**, **god of all**, **twilightnemo**, **fragglemaster**, **Still Not Dead Yet**, **10-iz4**, **wolfzmasterz**, **Flozzer905**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
**obsessivegirl73**, *author needed this to happen*-reason.  
**Orchamus**, wasn't the meaning of the gift already explained in the chapter?  
**Awsomeness7**, answered you via PM.  
**Super-Saiyan-3-Vegeta**, **Shinku Ryuuga**, too lazy and too busy to draw that at the moment.

* * *

*** Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "_**Harry Potter**_" and its characters in any shape or form.

"human speech"  
"_wraith speech_"  
'_human thoughts_'  
"_**spells / parseltongue**_"

* * *

_This chapter is not beta-read yet.  
_

* * *

**chapter 33: Things go downhill**

Albus Percival Wufric Brian Dumbledore was thinking hard about the implications of the letter he had received from Olivanders yesterday afternoon. The brother wand to Voldemort's was sold, but it didn't chose any of the two boys he thought could be the chosen one. Instead, the wand chose the youngest of the Weasley sons... But shouldn't this wand belong to the chosen one?

The old headmaster could think of two possible ways out of the situation. One, the wand, even this one, was really nothing more than a tool and it didn't matter who had it. And, two, he made a mistake when he was deciphering the prophecy Sybill had made, and neither Potter nor Longbottom were the real chosen ones... But in this case, how was it possible that Ron Weasley was the one?.. Or it could be possible that the prophecy wasn't talking about this time period at all.

No, the last option must be wrong, if nothing else because Voldemort was believing in it. So, it left Dumbledore with two options. And he was not sure, which one he should choose. On one hand, Potter boy had already shown that he was capable of stalling the Dark lord, and did some other things that no normal twelve years old wouldn't be able to. And he bore a mark from the Dark lord... On the other – Harry didn't act like the savior of the magical Britain should, and he had some darkness in him, while young Mr. Weasley was as light as one could be, even if he didn't show any special talents so far. Longbottom... Longbottom seemed to be somewhere in between these two, and, honestly, at this moment of time Dumbledore didn't see him as a possible chosen one...

Shaking his head, the old warlock taped his pensieve with his wand, making a ghostly image of Sybill Trelawny rise from the basin.

"_The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches. … Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies … and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not … and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives. … The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies…_" The image said in a voice that unmistakeably belonged to a seer making a true prophecy. It was far from the first time the Hogwarts headmaster had listened to this memory in the last twenty four hours, but he was still not getting closer to deciphering it in a way that would make sense given the current situation.

Albus Dumbledore shook his head again, he was getting nowhere with the way he was doing things right now. So why not trying another approach? It was a commonly know fact that prophecies often made sense only after the events they were talking about happened. So why not trying to decipher it that way? But for that to work, he needed to know which of the boys was the true chosen one.

* * *

Five days later, Dumbledore decided that found the solution to his problem with the prophecy. It took him a lot of work, but he finally made it make some sense again. But with that, another problem arose: how was he to break the news to the world, or, specifically, to the family of the chosen one? And what to do from there?

Well, while politics was the art of telling lies, there were some situations, when telling the truth as it was, was the best solution, so, the ancient wizard decided, he will announce his findings to the public as soon as he had talked to the chosen one himself and his family. And as for what he should do from there – it was simple: the chosen one needed to be trained, so that when the time comes, he will be ready to face his destiny.

So, the great Albus Dumbledore walked up to the fireplace in his office and threw some floo powder into the fire.

"The Burrow." He called, once the flames became emerald green, and then he stuck his head into his fireplace, having it magically reappear in the fireplace at the house called 'the Burrow'. Molly Weasley that was starting dinner at that time, saw him almost as soon as he (his head) appeared.

"Professor? Is there something I can do for you?" The witch asked. Dumbledore nodded.

"Is your family all here?" He asked. Receiving a nod in response, he asked another question: "Can I come through? This is something that is better said face to face and not over the floo." Molly nodded and invited him into the house.

**~/ *** \~**

On Friday, August the sixth, late in the morning, the Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge was having his yearly visit to the least welcoming place in the whole magical Britain: the Azkaban prison. Mostly though, this visit consisted of him talking to the warden and the aurors stationed there, but this year, for some reason, Fudge decided to go down to the holding cells and pay a visit to one of the 'greatest criminals' of the recent time.

"I hope you have a nice time rotting there." The Minister of Magic greeted the prisoner #c81122, otherwise known as Sirius Orion Black. The man, as dirty, unshaven and shabby as he was, was too sane for someone who had spent twelve years in Azkaban, so managed to come up with a witty reply:

"All that I miss in my room is a couple of nice girls to keep me warm at nights." Cornelius scowled and did a step back from the cell's door, just in case Black decided to try and attack him. "Anyway, minister, as much as like this place..." Even someone as stupid as a troll could hear a sarcasm here. "...It sorely lacks things to read, so much that I'm afraid I'll turn into the wild beast here." Still, Sirius Black wasn't completely sane, as no one but he himself could find a joke here... Once he finished his barking laughter, he continued: "Anyway, would you have anything to read on you, minister?"

"A-ah..." Seeing nothing wrong in giving Black something to read (after all who can escape Azkaban with a newspaper?), Fudge produced a week-old edition of the 'Daily Prophet' – the one where he was congratulating Arthur Weasley on winning the lottery – and threw it at the man, hoping that it would hit him across his face. Black, though, cough the newspaper.

"Thank you, minister." The imprisoned man said. "Now, if you excuse me, I need to catch up with the world outside." And in a display of absolute lack of manners, Sirius turned around and, opening, the newspaper, started reading it. Huffing angrily at the lack of respect shown to him, Fudge stomped away from Black's prison cell...

While the minister was finishing his visit to the Azkaban prison, Sirius Black was re-reading for dozenth time the article about Arthur Weasley winning some lottery, all of his attention concentrated on the photo: there was a familiar rat there... It took him some time to notice this, but the rat that was sitting in Arthur's youngest son's pocket was no one other than supposedly dead Peter Pettigrew in his animagus form. And since the rat was still alive and Ron – or whatever the boy's name was – was of the same age as Harry, Harry was in a grave danger! And as a good dogfather, Sirius decided that he needed to catch Peter before he had a chance to hurt his godson. And if he needed to escape the hell on Earth he was sent to without trial, so be it...

That night the aurors that patrolled the prison reported Sirius Black talking in his sleep. Usually that was nothing unusual for the prisoners of Azkaban, but... Black kept saying 'He's at Hogwarts', while a newspaper opened on the photo of the Weasley family lay next to him. It looked like Sirius Black was planning a new murder.

**~/ *** \~**

The next morning Harry was in the garden of the Salazar's cottage, playing with his 'pet project' a bit, while his thoughts were about what he should do next, now that Violet had found him a proxy that he had accepted. This proxy was a sixty-eight years old wizard by the name Ernst Schmidt, hailing from one of the low-class pureblood families in Germany. His upbringing and the two wars he had lived through had made his political views very similar to those that young lord Potter-Slytherin had...

Harry's thoughts were interrupted, when an owl carrying the latest edition of the 'Daily Prophet' landed on bush in front of him. Paying the bird five knuts for the newspaper, the young wizard took it from the bird. Unrolling the 'Prophet', he scanned the articles. At first it looked like nothing interesting was in this edition, but then his eyes landed on the title saying that Albus Dumbledore made a surprising announcement this Friday.

Since Harry knew that the Hogwarts headmaster rarely addressed the public in the recent years, this must be something important. Or maybe not, as the article was closer to the middle of the newspaper... Still, the green-eyed wizard flipped the pages and read the article:

"_Wizards and witches of Great Britain." Albus Dumbledore said as he appeared in front of the crowd yesterday. "I know that many of you think that because of the deeds I have done in the past, I can't do anything wrong. Sadly, that is not the case, as I'm still a human like any of you. Yes, I'm older and wiser than most, and I make mistakes not as often, but when I do make them, my mistakes, unfortunately, are far greater than those of an average man. And, I'm afraid, twelve years ago, just after that fateful Halloween night, I made a great mistake. When the young Mr. Potter miraculously survived the killing curse cast by the dark lord, I foolishly assumed that he was the one who will bring peace and prosperity to the magical world." Here professor Dumbledore made a pause, letting the crowd to calm down, so that he could continue._ The reporter wrote. _"But this summer I was presented with an evidence, that, after a careful study, revealed that that assumption was an incorrect one, and the boy who will guide us all to the Greater Good was someone else. This time, not to repeat the mistake I had already made once, I did a very thorough research, and in the end, the results I got indicated that the true savior of our world was all this time hidden in the shadows of the false one. And so I must tell you all that young Mr. Ronald Bilius Weasley is the one chosen by the fates to guide magical Britain towards the Greater Good." After the Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot left the stage, I took a small interview from him._ The reporter continued.

"_Good afternoon, professor Dumbledore. Can you answer some questions for the readers of the 'Daily Prophet'?" I asked. The greatest wizard of the century just nodded in response. "Can you tell us, what made you come to a conclusion that Mr. Potter is not the real chosen one?"_

"_I'm afraid, this is the information which is better left unknown by the masses, especially since those who seek to send magical Britain into the darkness are lurking everywhere." Albus Dumbledore replied. "Though I think I can say that I had some suspicions that Mr. Potter was not the chosen one even before this summer."_

"_Again, if this is not a secret, what gave you the clues about the identity of the real chosen one?" I asked then._ The reporter wrote then.

"_I'm sorry, but this too is something, I'm not willing to uncover at the moment, as it can prove to be a threat to the National Security." The Chief Warlock said._

"_Very well, my next question would be..._"

Harry threw the newspaper on the ground and drew his wand, wanting to set it on fire with some nasty spell, but then he stopped himself. Why was he even angry that now someone else will have to carry his burden of fame? Whatever the foolish idea made the Hogwarts headmaster say that Ron was the chosen one, it set him free... At least if the people would be decent enough to leave him to his own devices, like he wanted them to.

On the second thought, knowing how lazy and narrow minded and prone to putting his foot in the mouth his red-haired classmate was... Should someone had a bright idea to entrust the magical Britain to Ron in hopes he'll guide it towards the 'Greater Good', the young lord Potter-Slytherin thought, he'll have to find another place to live at, for nothing good will come out of that foolishness...

**~/ *** \~**

At the same time as Harry was thinking what the Dumbledore's announcement meant for him, in the Ministry for Magic a small meeting was held by the higher-ups as they were trying to decided what they should do now that the situation changed drastically.

"...And so, this brings me to a question: what should we do now, minister?" A certain toad-like witch that held the position of the senior undersecretary asked. Cornelius Fudge thought for several seconds, before replying:

"As far as I know, the Weasley family is too deep in Dumbledore's pocket to get the chosen one see the world was we need him easily. That doesn't mean that it is impossible, so your mission at Hogwarts stays the same, Dolores. I need you to bring the chosen one to our side." He said. The senior undersecretary nodded.

"Of course, minister, I'll do what I can. But... What should we do with the Potter brat? Frauds and liars like him do not belong to the noble society of magical Britain." She said. Cornelius leaned forward in his armchair, folding his hands in front of his face.

"I will organize something before the school year starts: Potter needs to be shown that frauds are not welcome here. But should he find a way save his ass from justice, I want you to do everything in your power to have him out of our noble homeland as he does not belong there" The minister said.

"I'll do that." Dolores Umbridge said. "But can you tell me, what do you have in store for the brat? I'm curious." The minister of Magic nodded and started telling her his 'evil' plan...

**~/ *** \~**

_Yesterday it was confirmed that notorious murderer Sirius Black, known for betraying Potters to you-know-who, had accomplished something we all thought impossible and broke out of the Azkaban prison._ The newspaper read. _It is not know how he managed that at the moment, but the Ministry for Magic assures that nothing similar will happen ever again, and that when Black is caught, he will receive dementor's kiss immediately. In the meantime, it is strongly advised that everyone remains vigilant and informs aurors about any suspicious activity, or any other possible leads to Black's whereabouts._

_We, in the 'Daily Prophet', also remind our readers that they are not to confront Black under any circumstances – he had already shown that he wasn't Voldemort's right-hand man for nothing, when he killed Peter Pettigrew (order of Merlin, first class, post mortem) and twelve muggles with a single spell. If you see Sirius Black, leave the area without getting his attention and inform aurors about his whereabouts immediately!_

Harry swore. Just a week ago Dumbledore had turned the magical world on its ears with his announcement about Ronald Weasley being the chosen one, and now this. It looked like he would not have a quiet year as he hoped he would. Oh well...

At least he should be more or less safe as no one alive but him knew where Salazar's cottage was, and no one in the right mind will attack Hogwarts. The train was a weak point here, but Harry was sure that there will be some extra protections that will keep Black away.

But there was one thing that didn't add up: Voldemort had no memories about Sirius Black being a Death Eater or anything like that. Instead, according to Tom, he was a Dumbledore's agent who, along with the rest of the 'roasted turkey order' had prevented many of the raids from being successful... Something was not right here, and Harry intended to find out the truth. So he sent a letter to Violet, asking her to find Black's trial record for him: maybe that will clear some things up.

**~/ *** \~**

The next morning the young lord Potter-Slytherin received and interesting missive from the Wizangamot. It was mostly interesting because it was not like an official correspondence sent out by the august body, no, this missive was just a slip of parchment with a single line written on it:

_Mr. Potter, you are to appear in the Wizangamot chambers on August 19__th__ at 10:00._

For some reason, to Harry it looked like some plan to (completely) destroy his reputation – so that he will have no chance to overshadow the new 'chosen one'. So, in case his gut feeling was right, he contacted Violet, telling her to be there as well as his personal assistant and, if needed, barrister.

* * *

That's all, folks!  
Leave me a **review**.


	34. The trial

Here's the newest chapter for the "_**Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord**_", enjoy!

*** Review response:  
Armacryss**, **Kine X**, **sterata**, **jozs001**, **Naginator**, **raw666**, **ElementalMaster16**, **god of all**, **obsessivegirl73**, **wolfzmasterz**, **Reishin Amara**, **Goldrune09**, **jafr86**, **Awsomeness7**, **Alphawolfy28**, **Karou WindStalker**, **Fritter**, **x-marks-the-spot1974**, **Nagato Uzumaki**, **RE5 forever**, **Shin1gam1**, **Penny is wise**, **Kingdark**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
**Orchamus**, read and see, what else can I say.  
**Tutenstein**, **Dericof Diname**, who know how Dumbledore's mind works? Here he thinks that the wand is the key, plus with how Slytherin-ish Harry is... In some other universe, dunno, vault size could have been the criteria =).  
**loginanout**, hehehe *tries to imitate evil laughter* *coughs* hehehe.  
**fragglemaster**, just two? there was time when I managed to run five... looks like I'm getting old, though, as two is about my limit now.  
**twilightnemo**, more or less. Though, his new status will take too much time to go to his head for him to be entire in character.  
**JPElles**, um... wasn't it completed like half a year ago? Good story btw.  
**Super-Saiyan-3-Vegeta**, Violet is more or less a trigger here - Amelia will be the one to tear stupid fool a new one.  
**Shadowwodahs**, oh? Thank you.

* * *

*** Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "_**Harry Potter**_" and its characters in any shape or form.

"human speech"  
"_wraith speech_"  
'_human thoughts_'  
"_**spells / parseltongue**_"

* * *

_This chapter is not beta-read yet.  
_

* * *

**chapter 34: The trial**

Frederick Gamp was in a good mood today. Why? Today was the day when the Potter brat will pay for stopping the Dark lord from giving the world to its rightful owners (purebloods). Sure, he was tried for a different reason, but did it matter? No. Not if he pays for his crimes against the owners of magic... And the lord Gamp was absolutely sure that the boy will not avoid the punishment.

The man himself was twenty four years of age, and was neither handsome, nor intelligent – looking a bit like a gorilla, and as clever as one – nor he had any outstanding talents. Of course, when he was within an earshot, everyone with half a brain praised him for his good looks, his intelligence and various magical talents... No one dared to displease the lord of the Most Noble house Gamp (and the future owner of the Malfoy fortunes through his marriage with the heiress of that house).

Anyway, Frederick was thinking about the upcoming trial of the Potter brat. In his opinion, it was too bad that the brat was charged only with fraud as in this case they wouldn't be able to sentence him to life-long imprisonment in Azkaban or a 'kiss'. But, maybe, if the right questions are asked during the interrogation, the list of his crimes will change... Yeah, it will good to finally remove that stain from the magical Britain's noble and pure society for good...

**~/ *** \~**

Meanwhile, Harry Potter too was approaching the Wizengamot chambers. While he didn't knew about what was going to happen to him, his gut feeling was telling him that the 'invitation' he had received was definitely not for a tea-party. So, he came prepared to protect himself, both on his own, and with the help of ms. Bridget, who was walking just behind him...

The first true sign that this won't be a normal Wizengamot meeting was a couple of aurors stationed just outside the doors of the chamber. As the two approached them, the aurors stopped them and while one of them performed a body search on Harry, the other was arguing with Violet, telling her that by the minister's order, only Lords were allowed to attend today's session. And since the blond with was more than quite stubborn, they were arguing for several minutes, before Harry intervened and told her that for now he should be fine and, should something happen, he'll contact her (though Harry himself wasn't sure how at the moment). Ms. Bridget didn't seem to be willing to let him go in 'unprotected', but since he was her client, his word had a lot of weight, and she had to give in.

"I'll be in the cafeteria." Violet finally said, before turning around and walking away, moving deliberately slow, just in case the aurors dared to do something to he client... Once she was out of sight, Harry was let into the Wizengamot chambers, but as soon as he stepped through the doors, he was hit with a couple of _**stupefy**_ charms to the back.

* * *

Some time later he was roughly woken by an _**enervate**_ spell. Now he was seated in a stone chair in the middle of the chamber, facing all of the lords and ladies (plus the Minister for Magic, an unpleasant toad-like woman by his side that was the senior undersecretary and a scribe), while his arms and legs were bound by a set of magical chains and an entire troop of aurors was standing just behind him with their wands trained at him... Not a pleasant wake up.

"Not that everything in order, let us begin." The Minister said. "Trial hearing of nineteenth August 1993 into the offenses committed by Harry James Potter against the magical law in a form of a major case of Fraud." The portly man announced. "Interrogators: Cornelius Oswald Fudge, Minister for Magic; Dolores Jane Umbridge, senior undersecretary to the Minister; Amelia Susan Bones, head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement; Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, the Chief Warlock of Wizengamot. Scribe: Julia Alice Runcorn." So, they were trying to remove him for good, Harry decided. Especially with how they forbid him to bring his barrister and weren't giving him one there... Not that he would accept a man he had never met before as one. Well, it was time for him to act and defend himself.

"Objection." Harry said, trying to sound much more confident than he actually was. "If I'm accused only in fraud, the chains are not to be used, as in accordance with the Wizengamot trial policies the chains can be used only on those accused with murder or other similar crimes." Amelia Bones sent an angry glare at the Minister, who had the decency to look abashed (at being caught).

"Aurors, release him form the chains." The head of the DMLE ordered. A second later the chains fell on the floor with a loud clang.

"Ahem... Now then, let us continue." Cornelius Fudge said. "Potter, tell us what made you think that you can appropriate the fame and everything else rightfully belonging to the chosen one? Answer now!" The man shouted in the end.

"I will say that I'm innocent of the crime in question as I'm not the one who made everyone think that I was the chosen one." The young lord Potter-Slytherin replied. This, of course, made some members of Wizengamot – from the 'darkest' and the 'lightest' families – shout their objections to this statement... That was until madam Bones shut everyone up with a controlled burst of her magic, showing that she was not someone you wanted to mess with.

"Please explain, Mr. Potter." She said.

"How about we read the article about 'the true chosen one' which was printed in the 'Daily Prophet' on August 7th?" Harry asked, before continuing. "In that article, Albus Dumbledore says that he made a mistake when he proclaimed me to be the chosen one after that Halloween night 1981. If that was his mistake, why am I accused of Fraud?" Again there were some protests (from the 'light' side of the Wizangamot only this time), but a single glare from madam Bones was enough to restore order.

"Scribe?" Amelia asked. The witch flipped through a mass of papers on her desk, looking for that particular edition of the 'Daily Prophet'. Once she found it – though it was not clear, why it was already there – she scanned through the pages of the the newspaper, before finding the article in question.

"I-It is as Mr. Potter says." The witch said with slight fear in her voice. Madam Bones nodded, but before she could open her mouth, madam Umbridge asked a question:

"It may be so, Potter, but no one can say that you haven't bewitched Albus Dumbledore? Surely it is possible that you made him make you the chosen one." The toad-like woman asked in sickly-sweet voice. Harry frowned.

"And how that would be possible?" He asked back. "I was just fifteen months old at that time. Are you trying to tell me that a child, who is not capable of abstract thoughts, required to make any sorts of plans of that level; a child who is incapable of normal speech, managed to deceive Albus Dumbledore, who is a known master in both occlumency and legilimency?" He asked.

"Well, we can expect anything from someone who had defeated the Dark lord..." madam Umbridge said, before making a pause. "Scribe, add murder of a human magic user to the list of crimes. Aurors, chains!" She ordered then. ...And so Harry once again had his arms and kegs bound with chains. "What do you have to say about this, Potter?" She asked, once again using that sickly-sweet voice of hers.

"Even if it was done by me, it would fall under the self-defense category, thus I'd be legally allowed to use force proportional to the one used against me. And the Dark lord used lethal force." The green-eyed wizard replied. "But since it is physiologically impossible for a child under about eight year to produce a controlled magic, whatever happened during that night was not a product of my magic."

"Very well." Amelia Bone said. "It is clear that Mr. Potter is innocent of the murder. Aurors, release..." Dolores Umbridge chose this moment to interrupt:

"Surely, you don't believe that liar, madam Bones? If he could bewitch Albus Dumbledore, he is capable of a killing a pureblood wizard." The head of the DMLE stared at the senior undersecretary.

"That is circular reasoning, madam Umbridge. You can't use it as an argument." She said. "Aurors, release the chains." And Harry was 'free' again. "If nobody has anything to add..." Madam Bones announced.

Albus Dumbledore wanted to use the fact that Harry was a parsemouth – no, he had nothing personal against the Potter heir, but the chosen one needed money to fund the war that was to come, and Harry had the galleons Ronald Weasley lacked – but the oath he made when they were hunting the monster from the Chamber of Secrets prevented him from speaking. So he had remained silent...

"As nobody has anything to add, the court will now return a verdict." Amelia Bones said. "Mr. Harry James Potter is charged with the case of major fraud..."

"Suggested punishment, full confiscation of monies, properties and titles belonging to him in favor of the offended party, Mr. Ronald Bilius Weasley, and a year in Azkaban, followed by sealing of magic and any memories of it and exile into the muggle world." Inserted Cornelius Fudge. Madam Bones coughed, before continuing.

"...is charged with the case of major fraud. Those in favor of conviction, raise your wands." She said. Moments later roughly thirty percents of the Wizengamot members (the most 'dark' ones and those that were in Dumbledore's pocket, though the old wizard himself didn't vote against Harry) and Cornelius with his pet toad raised their wands. Once the scribe counted the wands and wrote down the result, the head of the DMLE continued: "And those in favor of dropping the charges, raise your wands." This time about sixty percents of the Wizengamot members, and Amelia herself, raised their wands. Once the results of the vote were written down, madam Bones continued: "The court returns its verdict: Mr. Harry James Potter is cleared of all charges."

* * *

Fifteen minutes later the young lord Potter-Slytherin entered the cafeteria and quickly located Violet, who was sitting in the back corner of the hall and drinking some tea.

"Mr. Potter?" She asked. "You were incommunicado for quite some time. What had happened?" Harry took a seat across the table from her.

"They tried to use some dirty tricks to sentence me for 'major case of fraud'. But they failed." He replied. "Now then, I have a new task for you." Ms. Bridget nodded and prepared to write down the specifics of her new task. "I want you file a suit against the Ministry for not following their own trial regulations – they did not let me have anyone but myself as my defense – and for ignoring the presumption of innocence."

"I see what I can do about this." The blond witch replied. "The trial records are open for the public, so I will be able to get the transcription of your trial, but knowing the bureaucrats that sit in the Ministry, the suit will not be resolved any time soon." She said. Harry nodded.

"Do what you can." He told her. "Also, I think that it is possible, that the Ministry cronies will not let me be just yet, so, please, prepare a defense against the media attacks for me." Violet nodded and wrote that down on her parchment.

"Something else?" She asked then. The green-eyed wizard shook his head.

"No, nothing I can think of right now." He said. "If there will be something, I will owl you." Ms. Bridget nodded and, after placing encryption charms on it, placed the parchment into the folder she had with her.

"Well, then our business here is concluded." She said. "Shall we have a lunch before heading home?" Violet asked, knowing that right now her client needed someone he thought of as a friend next to him – he did go through a very unpleasant experience of standing a trial all on his own, after all. Harry just nodded in response.

**~/ *** \~**

Harry didn't have to wait long for the media attacks. On the next day after the trial, the 'Daily Prophet' had already printed the story about how he was a Fraud who was denying the 'chosen one' what should be his, and how he had bought his way out of the just punishment... And with how sloppy and self-contradictory even the article was, it was clear that it was written by the ministry bureaucrats and then forced it onto the newspaper.  
Unfortunately, it seemed that the wizarding world would believe anything you tell them, as hundreds of howlers assaulted Harry's residence. The wards, though, had defused every last one of them, turning the angry-red shouting letters into normal ones... Of course, the young lord Potter-Slytherin didn't bother to open even one of those letters, and burnt them all with the flame lance spell, till there weren't even ashes left from them.

Violet's response to the situation too was fast, as in the early afternoon a letter from the blond witch arrived. In this letter, she was writing that she had already filed a suit against both the 'Daily Prophet' and the 'Wizarding Wireless' for character slander against the member of a Noble house and using false information in their rendering of the trial events.

And even though on the paper it all looked good, Harry wasn't stupid enough to think that he will get the reparations right away: the hold of the Ministry on the media was far too strong for that. But since the head of DMLE was one of those who voted for his innocence during the trial, it was quite possible that Violet will win this case for him... So, for now, he would let her do her work.

* * *

As it turned out, madam Bones was far from happy with what the Ministry was trying to do in their anti-Potter campaign, so the head of the DMLE personally oversaw the enquiry into the lawsuit filed by Violet. This meant that no little no-name bureaucrat dared to bury it under the tons of other paperwork, and everything was done as fast as possible, and by August 25th Amelia Bones had both this suit, and the one Harry had filed for the violations made during his trial, satisfied.

This meant that both the 'Daily Prophet' and the 'Wizarding Wireless' were paying the young lord Potter fifty thousands galleons each, and were making a public apologies, while getting a warning for publishing the false information. The situation with the lawsuit against the Ministry wasn't as good as, at least at this point, madam Bones lacked the power to sue either the Minister or his senior undersecretary (they were the ones that tried to orchestrate the trial), but even a strict warning from the head of the DMLE was enough to keep both in line, at least for now – madam Bones was quite a fearsome woman, when she was displeased...

**~/ *** \~**

_ Wizards and witches of the Great Britain, as we all know, the recent Azkaban escapee Sirius Black (life sentence for being a Death Eater and killing thirteen humans) is still at large, and it is believed that he may be heading to Hogwarts to finish what he had started twelve years ago. But you should not worry about the safety of your children, while they are attending the school: not only the wards of Hogwarts were strengthened, but on the orders from the Minister for Magic, Cornelius Fudge, a group of Azkaban guards will be stationed around Hogsmeade and Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry._ "_Not even a mice will be able to get in or out unchecked. Black has no chances." Our illustrious Minister for Magic, Cornelius Fudge, said in his interview to our newspaper. "Of course, the search for Black will continue, and once he is captured, we will have him kissed for the crimes he had committed against our society."_

From here on, the article in the 'Daily Prophet' from the August 29th descended into singing praises to Cornelius Fudge, whose reputation had taken a blow from the lawsuit Harry had filed against the Ministry, following his trial. Of course, a lot of the article was still about the promises of the Minister to keep the children at Hogwarts, especially the chosen one (Ron Weasley) safe from the evil that was Sirius Black...

While Harry really hoped that those Azkaban guards the article was talking about were just aurors, he was too much of a realist to believe that someone in the ministry would not have a bright idea of stationing dementors around the school filled with emotional children... So, hoping for the best, he was preparing for worse, though there was pretty much nothing he could do to prepare to face a dementor: as pretty much the only thing to protect one from the effects of their aura was the patronus charm, and mastering it in three days was just impossible.

* * *

That's all, folks!  
Leave me a **review**.


	35. Meeting the fear

Here's the newest chapter for the "_**Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord**_", enjoy!

*** Review response:  
obsessivegirl73**, **NaruAndHarrHaremFan**, **jozs001**, **Kine X**, **Super-Saiyan-3-Vegeta**, **god of all**, **plums**, **Orchamus**, **SimFlyer**, **Awsomeness7**, **jafr86**, **twilightnemo**, **Dark Neko 4000**, **fragglemaster**, **Penny is wise**, thank you for your reviews, folks.  
**Armacryss**, yes, Violet is friendly because she's being paid, but... it is in her (firm's) interest to make sure Harry keeps his business with them. And so far she made him FAR more money than he had spent on her.  
**xFactor101**, finally someone wrote a CRITIC. One of the three I got for the chapter (I know, it really sucked) - I expected more, to be honest. Unfortunately, I have nothing to say in my defense here.  
**raw666**, Fudge has nothing against either 'chosen ones'. Lucius does, though, and Fudge does what he says for some money. As for why anti-Potter campaign, it is simple: they are trying to eliminate the more dangerous opponent as Lucius understands that Harry is the real chosen one (his eyes aren't clouded by the prophecy, and whatever other nonsense is flying around Dumbledore's head). Who do wish to have as your opponent, dim-witted and only moderately-powerful wizard who has nothing of his own ideas, or an intelligent and powerful one, who is completely independent? I think, the answer is obvious.  
**ElementalMaster16**, one, Tom never felt the need to learn the spell: he know the incantation but that's all. Plus you are right, memories only help Harry cast spells, he still needs to learn them.  
**Impstar**, before the end of the story the eye will be used at least once successfully. =)  
**Still Not Dead Yet**, Amelia usually doesn't attend trials and Wizengamot sessions in general - she has enough work in her own office.  
**MayonakaNoArashi**, for Dumb-as-a-door, there is a fate worse than death. *insert evil laughter here*

* * *

*** Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "_**Harry Potter**_" and its characters in any shape or form.

"human speech"  
"_wraith speech_"  
'_human thoughts_'  
"_**spells / parseltongue**_"

* * *

_This chapter is not beta-read yet.  
_

* * *

**chapter 35: Meeting the fear**

Even though mastering the patronus charm to any degree in three days was impossible, the young lord Potter-Slytherin still tried to learn it. Of course, since Tom never learned it, all that Harry got form his memories was the incantation and the most basic description of the spell. So, honestly, it was a miracle that he managed to produce any kind of results at all after these three days, even if these results were just a small cloud of barely visible silvery smoke...

Still, the green-eyed wizard though that this was better than nothing, and his only hope was that if and when he will have to face a dementor, he will be able to replicate this result – after all casting a magic powered by positive emotions around the creatures that takes those away would not be easy.

* * *

On the morning of September the first, after making sure that he had everything packed for the upcoming school year, Harry reactivated the stasis ward around the Salazar's cottage and apparated to the secluded corner of the platform 9¾ – while he did have his apparation license, attracting too much attention to himself wouldn't be good.

Since he had arrived pretty early, there weren't many people on the platform, and most of the compartments were empty. So, after some thinking, Harry chose one in the second from the end car, and, taking one of the Salazar's journals, began reading as he waited for his friends to arrive... Neville was the first one to board the train.

"Hello, there, Harry." The scion of the Ancient and Noble house Longbottom greeted. "I've heard from gran that you had quite an exciting summer... And congratulations on your ascent into the lordship." The green-eyed wizard nodded

"I don't think that 'exciting' would be the correct word here, though." He said. "Our minister, for some reason, decided that I'm the bad guy out there, so he tried to create some problems for me. He didn't expect me to be ready to protect myself, though... Thank you and thanks for the extracts, by the way: they are really of the highest quality." Neville blushed a bit at the compliment towards his family's greenhouses, and waved his hands.

"Don't mention it, Harry, I'm happy to help you." He was about to say something else, but Hermione chose this moment to enter the compartment.

"Here you are, boys!" The bushy-haired and slightly out of breath witch exclaimed. "Hello, Neville, hello, Ha-..." Here she looked at the young Potter and (finally) noticed how he had changed over the summer month. "...-rry. What are they feeding to you? You've grown quite a bit." Indeed, thanks to whatever caused it, Harry now was significantly taller than just a few months ago. Hell, most of the signs that his relatives weren't taking good care of him while he still lived with them were gone... The green-eyed wizard just shrugged – it wasn't causing him any problems (yet), so, while it was an interesting phenomenon, he had more important things to worry about at the moment.

**~/ *** \~**

Not very pleasant 'meeting' with the youngest Malfoy aside, so far the train ride went well, and judging by how it was getting darker (even though it was already quite dark thanks to the heavy clouds that were pouring cold rain upon the land) outside the window, they were getting close to the Hogsmeade station...

Suddenly, the train started slowing down, which was rather unusual as they were still about an hour away from their destination – both the scenery outside the windows and Harry's new pocket watch could confirm that.

Being curious, Neville peeked out of the compartment, but so far he could only see the head of the others like him, who were trying to find a reason for the train to stop here of all places... Indeed, soon the train came to a complete stop with a slight jolt, which, judging by the sounds, made some of the luggage fall on the floor from the rails... The sounds of the rain and wind became clearer and slightly louder, while a rare lightnings looked sharper and so bright that their core seemed black.

"Wh... What the hell?" Harry asked, when he noticed that it was also getting colder in the train, while the mist was surrounding the train from the outside. When the lights started flickering on and off over their heads, the young lord Potter-Slytherin understood what was going on. "They wouldn't!" He exclaimed loudly, while everyone in the compartment shivered slightly from the unnatural cold that was seeping in.

"They wouldn't what?" Asked Hermione, who, so far was in the dark about what was happening. Neville, while looking like he too had only little understanding of occurring, kept quiet and only shivered slightly as it was still getting colder.  
"They've brought dementors to check the train." Harry said. Indeed, there were no other creatures in the magical (or muggle for that matter) world, that could cause this kind of unnatural cold... Just as he finished saying that, the lights in the train car finally decided that they won't be working for now, and the compartment was now filled with almost complete darkness.

"D-Dementors?" The scion of the Ancient and Noble house Longbottom asked with a slight fear in his voice – like everyone who grew in the magical world, he had heard stories about there awful creatures. "Are you s-sure, Harry?"

"If you know anything else that can cause this, please, tell me." Harry replied, while an unmistakeable drain of anything positive one held inside started, making it feel like nothing good will ever happen again... Neville didn't answer.

"What is a dementor?" Asked Hermione, who was holding a weak and flickering orb of white light on the tip of her wand. "I don't remember ready about them in our books."

"I'd be surprised, if you had: dementors are one of the foulest creatures you can find out there." Harry replied. "Dementors feed on positive emotions and when you are near one, it will feel like there is no good left in the world, none at all. They also produce unnatural cold and most of light sources, magical and not, have problems working near them." He lectured. "Finally they have an ability to suck ones soul out of the body – they eat it."

"Don't forget that there is no known way to kill a dementor." Neville added. "You can drive them off with certain charms, but killing is not possible." Now it was really cold in the compartment – a faint mist could even be seen near the floor – and, indeed, it felt like all the happiness of the world was gone and will never return.

"They must be really foul creatures, these dementors." Hermione said.

"You don't even know how right you are." The young Potter replied, and just a moment later the orb of light on the tip of bushy-haired witch's wand died. "It is here." Harry said barely above whisper. Just a couple of seconds later, the compartment door was opened, revealing a creature the trio will likely never forget.

The creature had a towering yet slightly bow-backed figure, covered with a ragged cloak, which was likely black in color. The hood of the cloak made it impossible to see the creatures face, but no one had any doubts that it was ...not pretty and fit well with the long and slow rattle breath of the creature (which sounded like someone was trying to suck out the very air from the surroundings)... The demontor then raised its arm, revealing its had from the cloak – it was grayish and slimy looking and scabbed, as if decayed in the water...

As the creature had raised its hand, a wave of the extreme unnatural cold that went as deep as their very souls were washed over the three teens. The sounds got muffled and and their visions became blurry and whitish... Harry tried to force his body to cast a patronus charm to drive the foul thing off, but the spell failed before he was even finished with crying out the incantation... The cold was getting stronger, and now the young Potter could hear distant screams that definitely weren't happening in the real world, while blurry and ghostly images appeared in front of his eyes, though he couldn't see well what they were...

And then it felt like he was thrown into the weightlessness, as the effects of the dementor aura all but disappeared... When his vision had more or less returned to normal, he could see that the creature had left their compartment already – still the aftereffects of its visit were clearly seen: Hermione was shaken to the core and was very pale. Neville didn't look much better, but the rudimentary occlumency training he had was helping him there a bit.

"W-What w-w-was that?" The bushy-haired witch asked in a shaken voice.

"A dementor." Harry replied, forcing himself to sound strong, even if he felt really sick at the moment... Accessing Voldemort's memories at the moment was hard, but he still tried to get all of the knowledge Tom had on the dementors. "You... you should eat some chocolate, if you have it – this should make you feel better." He said, after almost a minute of silence. "I shall go down the train to help others." No, not that he really wanted to do that at the moment – there was a chance that the dementor was still there as the train was yet to start moving – but his hero side just couldn't let him leave other suffering... "And I'm definitely going to set Violet upon whichever fool had the bright idea to have an unsupervised dementor check a train full of emotional and completely defenseless kids." He said as an afterthought.

* * *

Since he was almost at the end of the train, the young lord Potter-Slytherin decided that it would be a better idea to go towards the beginning of the train – it was likely that the dementor (if there indeed was only one) moved in this direction as well... And now that the foul creature was barely affecting him, the green-eyed wizard decided that having a patronus charm, even as bad and weak as his was, with him would be a good idea.

"_**Expecto patronum!**_" He said the incantation, while bringing the happiest memory he had to the front of his mind. The first time he failed to produce anything with the charm, but he tried again, and with the second attempt, he managed to create a small silvery cloud that was radiating warmth and happiness.

As he walked towards the beginning of the train, Harry mostly encountered shaken but otherwise alright Hogwarts students. There were several cases of those who were affected by the dementor really badly, but those were rare and, still, nothing worrisome... As he was getting closer to the center of the train, he met many of the students he knew, but he hadn't stopped for more than just a 'hello' at their compartments. Now though, he came across a compartment where the Gryffindor flying foxes were:

"Oh, hello there Harry!" Alicia greeted him. "Enjoyed our present? If you really want, we can show you some more" The young Potter blushed, not really knowing, whether she was serious or just teasing him.

"You have really grown up, Harry." Katie added. "Not that we mind that our little Harry is not that little now, right, girls?" How the hell could there three be so full of life just minutes after the dementor's visit was beyond the green-eyed wizard.

"It's really nice to see you, girls, but I'm afraid, I'll have to go now." And he retreated from their compartment, doing his best to ignore the pouts the vixens had put on their faces... Once he was out in the corridor, Harry shook his head to clear it from the unneeded images and ideas that had barely clothed Gryffindor chasers in them... When was sure he was ready, he re-summoned his almost-patronus and continued walking towards the beginning of the train, helping those badly affected by the dementor along the way.

When he got to the fourth car from the locomotive, in one of the compartments he found three of his Slytherin friends, plus one very shaken girl who seemed to be two years younger. The girl looked very much alike Daphne (the later was hugging the girl), so Harry went ahead and assumed that she was her sister.

"Hello there, ladies." He greeted them, while pushing more power into his weak patronus, as it seemed to be helping the girl a lot – she was looking much better now. "Have you tried giving her some chocolate?" He asked then. "They say, it helps here." The Greengrass heiress nodded.

"We did, but as you can see, it didn't help that much." She replied. "I didn't even know than my sister had experienced something so awful that she would react this badly..." She said then, while shaking her head.

"Your sister? I don't believe we've been introduced." Harry said.

"Right, Harry, this is Astoria Evelyn Greengrass." Daphne replied, before turning to her sister. "Astoria, this is Harry James Potter, our ...accomplice."

"Pleased to meet you." The green-eyed wizard said with a slight bow. Then he addressed to everyone in the compartment. "Have any of you seen anybody with the dementor?" He asked. The witches, all four of them, shook their head.

"No, there wasn't anyone." A ...displeased voice from behind Harry said. Turning around, the young Potter saw the head boy – a seventh year Ravenclaw that he didn't knew – who had an almost corporeal patronus hovering in front of him. "Is everyone alright down the train?" He asked, receiving a nod in response. "Thank you, Mr. Potter." The head boy said. "I'm going to check on them anyway." After a small pause he added: "I'll talk to the deputy about getting you something for your services to the school today." And then he was on his way, with the head girl hurrying after him.

"No one to control the dementor?" Harry said. "I'm so going to file a lawsuit against whichever brain-dead bastard had the bright idea to do this. He is really lucky that no one got kissed." He shook his head, forcing himself not to dissolve into a rant about how bad the things could have been, and how lucky the one who ordered this train check was that they weren't.

"House Greengrass will support you." Daphne said. "And I'm sure that most of the students, if not everyone, will sign under the collective suit – just give it a day, and you will see how many do agree with you here." Even though he wished he could start the process as soon as possible, he had to agree there: a collective suit, especially if most of Hogwarts sign it, will be so much more powerful than if it were to be filed from just him.

"Yeah, you are right, Daphne, I will be sending the letter to my barrister on Sunday evening. Until then, anybody who wants can sign under the collective suit of ours." The young lord Potter-Slytherin said.

"Very well, we will be spreading the information about it around for now." Tracey said, while both Greengrasses and Draconica nodded in agreement. "And you and your fiends should do the same." ...By now the train was already speeding towards the Hogsmeade station and, most likely, will be there in about forty minutes.

"Yes, of course." Harry said. "It was nice to chat with you, ladies, but I believe I should return to my compartment: I still need to change into the uniform... I hope the rest of our evening will be much more pleasant." And with a slight bow he left their compartment. Canceling the patronus charm he had active all this time, the young wizard finally noticed how much it drained him: he really hoped he will recover enough by the curfew or he'll have to postpone going after the diadem horcrux for a week...

As he was on his way back to the compartment he, Neville and Hermione occupied, his thoughts began drifting back to Draconica Malfoy... Now that his body was maturing fast(er) and he no longer was under the oppression of his _loving relatives_, he began noticing the blond witch (and not only her, actually), as a girl. And with how she treated his gifts – it looked like she wore those wristbands all the time – and how she often behaved around him in the recent times, it was almost like she too might feel something towards him...

No, he told himself, Draconica was bound by a marriage contract, so there was no chance of anything blooming between them. So, to keep his thoughts away from that, the young Potter forced himself to think about the wording of the collective suit against some foolish ministry worker that will be filed through Violet, while also telling everyone he met in the corridors about it – after all, the more signatures he will collect, the more powerful the lawsuit will be.

* * *

The rest of the train ride went rather well, but once they at long last reached the Hogsmeade train station, everyone was forced into the cold rain that was still pouring down form the skies. So while the unlucky first years were taken to the lake by Hagrid, the older students all but sprinted towards the stagecoaches that were waiting for them on the now muddy rough track not far away from the platform...

When some fifteen minutes later, now again warm and dry thanks to some very useful charms, Harry and his friends along with the rest of the older years filed into the Great hall, the green-eyed wizard saw _that woman_ sitting at the professors' table: Dolores Umbridge was at Hogwarts.

"Why do I have a feeling that this year will not be an easy one?.." Harry said with a sigh.

* * *

That's all, folks!  
Leave me a **review**.


	36. Ravenclaw's diadem

Here's the newest chapter for the "_**Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord**_", enjoy!

*** Review response**:  
**Kine X**, **god of all**, **Dark Neko 4000**, **Naginator**, **Super-Saiyan-3-Vegeta**, **Mordalfus Grea**, **ElementalMaster16**, **Slytherin Studios**, **Hanzo of the Salamander 2.0**, **obsessivegirl73**,** Armacryss**,** .owered**, **Still Not Dead Yet**, **Kenjo**, **Follower38**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
**raw666**, for all his political and magical powers, Dumbledore is too much of 'second chance' person to be a great threat. Plus, the idea was this: send Harry to Azkaban and then arrange an ...accident, which will remove him from the list of possible threats forever. Once this happens, reveal that Dumbledore is an old meddling fool who made one of his supporters into the 'chosen one', while the real one was sent to his death. And while the society it to busy with trying to to get to the bottom of this, behead it, and install the person of your choice as the leader.  
**NaruAndHarrHaremFan**, she'll show him how wrong he is soon enough.  
**Orchamus**, heh. No foursomes in the foreseeable future, though. Though... No, I planned to end the story before it comes to that.  
**Joe Lawyer**, actually, I kinda didn't have much about that, but... I will really try to think of something that will seem natural to the magical world.  
**JPElles**, well as for 'courting another girl' - it starts next chapter. For details, read AN just before the disclaimer.  
**Lord-Phoenix7**, and what the eye would give him? I don't think a dementor can be petrified. Plus no one knows about his eye yet. Revealing it now might have been too soon.  
**SimFlyer**, that confrontation will undoubtedly happen, but not just yet.  
**fragglemaster**, Remus will make an appearance in the story. As for the basilisk fang sword - it is hidden in Harry's trunk.  
**vampirewithwolfeyes**, Mrs. Toad will get hers soon. And it will not be pretty. For her.

**Warning!** This chapter contains some M-rated material for your enjoyment. Solo-F so far, but...

Also, for the next couple of chapter the pairing will be Harry/Katie. It will not last long, though, and soon (3-5 chapters) Harry/Draconica will begin. Just be patient, those who are waiting for that.

* * *

*** Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "_**Harry Potter**_" and its characters in any shape or form.

"human speech"  
"_wraith speech_"  
'_human thoughts_'  
"_**spells / parseltongue**_"

* * *

_This chapter is not beta-read yet.  
_

* * *

**chapter 36: Ravenclaw's diadem**

The sorting ceremony was this year a bit longer, as there were more first years there. Astoria Greengrass, after the hat spent on her head several seconds, was sorted into Slytherin. Harry didn't bother to pay attention to the rest, as he knew no one else there... And once the sorting was finished, Dumbledore gave one of his usual and slightly insane welcoming speeches, that ended with introduction of the new Care for the Magical Creatures professor (Hagrid) and the new DADA professor: Dolores Jane Umbridge.

The toad-like woman then gave a speech of her own, which could be summarized to the single idea: whatever the ministry was doing, it was the right thing, and those who thought otherwise were dangerous elements who belonged to Azkaban. Unfortunately, only so many students could see that behind the mass of pretty words she was using...

Once she was finished with her, quite lengthy, speech, the headmaster said a few more (absolutely meaningless) words, and the feast began. And this was when the information about the lawsuit being prepared was spread among the students... Everyone in Gryffindor, who had even the faintest idea about the tragedy that was avoided today by the pure chance agreed to sign under this lawsuit. And from what Harry and his friends could see, in the other houses, even in Slytherin, the situation was mostly the same.

So putting that problem out of his mind for the time being, the young lord Potter-Slytherin got to planning this evening, when he will go after the Ravenclaw's diadem, which, according to Tom's memories, was in the Room of the lost things... Since for the last two years his bed was surrounded by the wards to keep the attention of others away, slipping out of the dormitory under the invisibility cloak will not be difficult: no one will bother to check whether he is in his bed or not. And with some older years going in and out of the common room during night hours, getting out of the tower without alerting the Fat lady about this too shouldn't be too hard.

Getting back in the morning, most likely closer to the lunch time, shouldn't pose much difficulty as well, especially with the help of the cloak. Finding a place for the ritual where he won't be disturbed in the worst possible moment – this was what Harry thought to be the real problem. Of course, he could try the Chamber of Secrets (after all he planned to release his 'pet project' there), but he was not sure that the main entrance wasn't blocked... The Room of the lost things was another alternative, but it was not like Tom Riddle was the only one to find it, so there was a little chance of someone stumbling upon him while he was busy destroying the horcrux.

Oh well, the green-eyed wizard decided, he will see where he can perform the ritual later on, as the guesswork now was not doing him any good. So for now he concentrated on his dinner: he will need a lot of energy this night after all...

**~/ *** \~**

Once the feast has finished, the prefects guided their houses back to the common rooms, telling everyone the current passwords and sharing various bits of Hogwarts wisdom with the first years. As soon as he was back to the common room, Harry headed straight to the room he shared with his yearmates, stating that the encounter with the dementor had him tired and he wished to go to bed now. No one had questioned him about this, as many students, especially the younger ones, too felt (emotionally) exhausted after the meeting with the Azkaban guarding beast.

Just like the young Potter hoped they would, the wards around his bed he had put near the end of the previous school year were still up, so he won't have to re-cast them tonight. Opening his trunk, Harry took out the invisibility cloak, the pack of the pre-made magic booster potions in vials. Then with a gentle hissing he woke up the little basilisk that he had sleeping in the 'nest' made from his sweater somewhere in the depths of the trunk. The little albino snake, following his command, slithered onto his left hand, and further up, coiling around his arm.

Attaching the vials with potions onto his belt, Harry put on his invisibility cloak and, arranging his bed to look like he was there, slipped out of the dorm.

Getting out of the Gryffindor tower too wasn't hard. Harry didn't even have to wait for long for someone to open the portrait for him. Once outside, the young wizard headed straight to the second floor and to the moaning Myrtle's bathroom...

It looked like the luck was on his side tonight as the ghost was out (and so couldn't alert anybody about him being there), and,as he had quickly confirmed, the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets wasn't blocked in any way. Not even a ward – at least on the level of the detection spells Voldemort knew – was placed there. Well, his gain, Harry decided, before descending to the Chamber, this time creating stairs for himself with a parseltongue command.

Some walking later, the young lord Potter-Slytherin found himself back in the 'main hall' of the Chamber of Secrets. After telling his little – just about two feet long – snake to go and make itself at home in the small chamber that was inside 'the head', Harry began preparing the ritual for the horcrux destruction. Drawing the required runic circles was a meticulous and rather slow work that took him almost two hours to complete.

Once he was done with the preparations, it was time to go and collect the diadem. When Harry got back to the girl's toilet, Myrtle was there, but she was too busy moaning in her cubicle to notice the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets opening and then closing... Using Tom's memories the green-eyed wizard navigated towards the seventh floor where the Room of the lost things was. He had almost ran into a couple of prefect patrols, but the invisibility cloak was doing its magic well, and he wasn't noticed.

Following the algorithm young Voldemort used, Harry walked three times in front of the empty wall across from the tapestry of Barnabas the barmy trying to teach trolls ballet, while thinking about needing a place to hide things. Just like for Tom forty-something years ago, the door appeared on the wall. Opening the door, the young Potter found himself in a huge chamber, filled with miscellaneous junk and, sometimes, even still useful things. There were some things that weren't there in Voldemort's memories – like dozens empty sherry bottles – but for the most part the Room of the lost things looked the same. Still, of others had found this room, there was a slight chance that the diadem was removed...

Shaking his head, Harry closed the door behind him, and started making his way through the room towards an old servant with a bust of an unknown wizard on it. If everything was alright, the diadem would be sitting on the head of that bust. If not... Thankfully, it was there: most likely no one had noticed the priceless founder's artifact in the dimly lit room among the thousands upon thousands of articles of various things that were scattered around in massive piles.

Getting the diadem itself was quite a task, as Voldemort had made it resistant to summoning, and with how it was located getting it otherwise was really hard... An ancient, but still working, broom, which Harry found not too far from there, solved the problem, though.

Now that he had the diadem, it was time to return to the Chamber of Secrets and destroy the horcrux in it... On his way down there, the young wizard almost ran into Mrs. Norris, but once again his invisibility cloak saved him... When he reached the moaning Myrtle's toilet, the ghost was again away, so he could enter the Chamber completely undetected. Several minutes later he finally arrived to the 'main hall' of the Chamber, where the ritual circle was waiting to be used... Placing the diadem on the center of the runic circle, Harry gulped down all three vials of the magic booster potion he had on him and took his place at the edge of the circle.

"Time to do it." He said under his breath, before initiating the ritual, while his magic was powerful and still with him...

**~/ *** \~**

Even in his year, Harry wasn't the only one awake this late in the night. Deep in the Slytherin dungeons, one Draconica Malfoy was not sleeping as well, though her reasons were entirely different from his: no matter how well-organized and controlled her mind was, her body wasn't, and it was now telling her to go after a certain dark-haired wizard.

Yes, sure, now she was admitting it to herself that she had some feelings going beyond friendship for him, which were only reinforced after what had happened today on the train. The blond witch shook her head, trying to clear her head from the unneeded thoughts and images: with the contract she was in, she shouldn't even be looking at (other) boys... Her body and her subconscious, though, had other ideas, as the image of Harry kept resurfacing, often with her in his arms, while the 'annoying' itch down there wasn't going away on its own as well...

Sighing, Draconica accepted her 'loss' and kicked the blanket off herself. She then unbuttoned her night shirt and brought her hands to feel up her growing breasts, already small B-cups in size. Soon, though, her right hand began traveling south, till it disappeared into the panties she wore... Draconica let out a moan when her fingers gently touched her pussy lips and brushed against her clit, while her other had was fondling her left breast.

She was not feeling herself often, but this wasn't the first time either, so the blond witch knew already how to make herself feel good, and so she, having pulled the annoying piece of fabric down where it wasn't in the way, began thrusting her middle finger into her tight love canal, with her thumb moving in tight circles 'round her clit. Draconica also kept playing with her breasts with her other hand, squeezing them and pinching her nipples from time to time, all the while imagining what it would be like to have the object of her fantasies there, pleasuring her...

The blonde puller her finger from her pussy, and, bringing her right hand to her face, sucked on her both index and middle fingers, not minding that she was tasting herself this way. Pulling her fingers out of her mouth and giving them one last lick, Draconica returned her hand to her nether regions and thrust those two fingers into her tight pussy, moaning loudly and arching her back from the pleasure that went like a lightning through her body.

As she kept fingering herself towards her orgasm, while not-so-gently squeezing her breasts with the other hand, the blond witch was imagining what it would be like to have the real sex with her desired one...

"Mph-a-ah!" Arching her back and pinching her left nipple really hard, she cried out as she finally pushed herself over the edge, imagining herself being filled with _his_ cock... Slowly sliding back into lying flat on her back, the blond witch pulled her cum-covered fingers from her pussy and bring them to her face to lick and suck them clean...

For the next several minutes Draconica just lay on her bed, enjoying the warm and lazy feeling of the post-orgasmic bliss. Eventually, though, she had pulled her panties back to their proper place on her body and buttoned her night shirt up, before pulling the blanket over herself, and trying to fall asleep.

* * *

Draconica wasn't the only one who could get no sleep because of the young Potter: on the opposite side of the castle in the tower that housed Gryffindor house, Katie Bell was experiencing similar troubles. The reasons, though, were a bit different...

It all started about the time Harry had joined the quidditch team, almost two years ago, but at that time she (and the two other vixens) saw him just as a cute little boy who was fun to tease. After this summer, though, Katie just couldn't see him as such anymore – he grew up into a young man and a powerful wizard... No, what she felt towards him wasn't exactly love. They even weren't that close, but she still was drawn towards him.

Also, she was neither blind nor stupid, and so she could see that there was something between Harry and Draconica, even though they seemed to be either unaware of that, or in denial. It was just a matter of time, before those two got together... But until that happened, Katie decided, she'll be the one with him. Now all that she needed was to think of a way to approach him so that he will know she's serious and not teasing him like she with Alicia and Angelina often did...

**~/ *** \~**

Harry groaned and sat up. He was still down there in the Chamber of Secrets. The Ravenclaw's diadem, now horcrus-free, lay on the floor not far away from him. Knowing that his magic still hadn't returned to him, thanks to the aftereffects of the magic-booster potions, he used his pocket watch to see, what time it was. It turned out that it was just ten in the morning, so, hopefully, no one hadn't noticed that he wasn't in the Gryffindor tower during the night yet...

Picking the diadem up, the young wizard inspected it, while thinking, what should he do with this priceless artifact: it definitely should be hidden somewhere as it was dangerous – something with the ability to enhance knowledge should not fall in the wrong hands, and just the allure of that ability might have people fighting each other... No, it really should be hidden somewhere.

The Chamber of Secrets seemed to be like a good idea, but, first, it was Salazar's and not Rowena's. And any parselmouth can access it, so... Gringotts, while well known for safekeeping various goods, too wasn't the best option, as no one guaranteed that some goblin would not take the diadem for himself: Ravenclaw line was dead, so no one will be able to check, whether the diadem was really put in the vault... And the Room of lost things, even if the diadem had laid there undisturbed for the last half a century, was not the safest place either...

Deciding that this could wait for now – a couple of day the diadem will be safe in the Chamber – the young lord Potter-Slytherin headed out, hoping that his parseltongue was still with him, even if his magic wasn't at the moment... As it turned out, he was still able to speak the language of serpents, so getting back to the castle wasn't a problem.

Using his invisibility cloak, Harry sneaked into the Gryffindor tower before, quickly changing out of his school robes he still wore into something more casual, heading down to the Great hall for some late breakfast: he was really hungry.

Since it was weekend, the breakfast lasted till eleven in the morning, so the green-eyed wizard got there when they were still serving. Actually, good half of the Hogwarts students and several professors were there – not many in the magical world were early-risers, it seemed – but today that was just fine with Harry: no one will question why he got there just now. Even those who knew that usually he was one of the first in the Gryffindor tower to get up...

"Hey there, Harry." Neville said from his seat at the Gryffindor table. "You look still tired. You sure you shouldn't visit madam Pomfrey?" The young lord Potter shook his head.

"Nah, couldn't fall asleep at first – damn that dementor – so I read one of my anatomy books... Apparently, I read a bit too far into the night." He said with a shrug. "Where is Hermione, by the way?"

"Haven't seen her since yesterday." The scion of the house Longbottom replied. "Probably in the library already." Harry nodded: knowing the bushy-haired witch, she most likely was indeed in the library, surrounded by ancient tomes or some other books.

"They weren't handing out the timetables?" He asked then, suddenly remembering that he hadn't got his. Neville shook his head.

"The timetables are handed out during the breakfast on the first day of classes. Wasn't that written in the 'Hogwarts: a history'?" Harry smacked himself on the head.

"Darn, completely forgot about that. Thanks." He said, while putting some more fried bacon on his plate. The two friends continued eating peacefully, while having small talk, mostly about their new school year... That was until Ronald Weasley, the chosen one (or whatever the title he was given by Dumbledore) finally decided to grace those at the Great hall with his presence. While most of the students didn't show any different reaction to this from what they had before this summer, some of the more gullible exemplars, though, were looking at him like many looked at Harry when he had just reappeared in the magical world. "Hey, Neville." The young lord Potter said. "Please tell me it wasn't like this with me two years ago?" Neville shook his head.

"Believe me, mate, it was worse." Then he laughed heartily at Harry's face. "Sorry, but that's the truth." The green-eyed wizard sighed and, looking at his now empty plate, said:

"Oh well, I'm going to the library – there was something I needed to check." Yeah, he still needed to find a way to permanently deal with Voldemort, even if not all of his horcruxes are destroyed.

"Good luck then, mate." Neville replied, while getting himself another helping of the pancakes with strawberry jam.

* * *

That's all, folks!  
Leave me a **review**.


	37. Prophecy for the darkness' rise

Here's the newest chapter for the "_**Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord**_", enjoy!

*** Review response**:  
jozs001, jafr86, Naginator, raw666, ElementalMaster16, MayonakaNoArashi, Armacryss, Super-Saiyan-3-Vegeta, Kine X, obsessivegirl73, .owered, twilightnemo, Alphawolfy288, Dark Neko 4000, Still Not Dead Yet, Penny is wise, JPElles,  
Impstar, answered you via PM. (at least I think I did).  
Orchamus, the all MIGHT go. though... *scribbles in his notebook* You'll see what I have in my mind later on.  
NaruAndHarrHaremFan, jealous. And, yes, she, eventually, will go after Harry.  
fragglemaster, I write to surprise you. =)  
The Sinful, sorry, I already have another idea in my mind. It also helps with explaining some 'improvements' to Harry next summer (the eye, it revolves around the eye; not what you, perverts, thought).  
Awsomeness7, she has a private room in the dungeons. Like every other Slytherin. I think I wrote about that sometime during the first several chapters.  
Rhagar, quite honestly, I can remember only two stories with fem-Draco, and neither of those have a pairing for her with Harry. There might be more stories, but I'm not aware of them. If you find one, do PM me with the link - I'd like to try reading them too.

*** Author's Note:** I'm putting this story (again) on a month-long hiatus - I'm running low on inspiration, plus I need to polish the ideas for the next chapters. I'll be back sometime about 20th February. Hopefully with something you will like.  
Also, to those who will have a question about when Harry/Draconica will actually start (I'm sure there will be some with this question after this chapter), I'm going to tell this: two or three chapters after this one, depending on how the plot will develop.

* * *

*** Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "_**Harry Potter**_" and its characters in any shape or form.

"human speech"  
"_wraith speech_"  
'_human thoughts_'  
"**powered speech / true prophecies by the seer**"  
"_**spells / parseltongue**_"

* * *

_This chapter is not beta-read yet.  
_

* * *

**chapter 37: Prophecy for the darkness' rise**

Since the classes haven't even started yet, only the most hardcore students (and some very curious first years) could be found in the library. Hermione, being her usual self, was doing some light reading – so light that she couldn't be seen behind the stack of the books in front of her. Deciding that he shouldn't disturb her, Harry picked another table for himself, before going to the bookshelves in searches for the books that could possibly contain any clues about how to deal with his Dark lord problem.

It took him about fifteen minutes, but he got half a dozen of books on various magical disciplines that might help him. Thinking that this would be enough for now, Harry headed back to 'his' table for some of his own 'light' reading...

Harry spent next several hours looking through the tomes he chose for something that could help him with his Voldemort problem. But as much interesting information was there in the books, nothing was of any real use for him. But then again, did he really expect to find a way to off a dark lord with horcruxes in a book that wasn't even in restricted section? Well, no, but something that might give him an idea could have been there... So, the young lord Potter-Slytherin decided not to stop his search yet, even though so far he had no luck.

There was another thing that occupied his mind: even though it was clear that Tom wasn't the only one to find the Room of the lost things, for it to work not all the stuff in it must be from the students or staff: a lot more must have been there when the first of those 'lost' things was placed there. In other words, the room must be providing the environment in which one could easily hide something. And this made Harry wonder: what else could the room do? And the house elves of Hogwarts surely knew something about the room, so the young wizard decided to ask one of them. That is, when he met one, as Hogwarts elves were good elves, and good elves weren't to be seen...

Still, that could wait for a bit as right now he had more important things to work on: the lack of results from his search through the tomes hadn't discouraged him – if not the method, he could find an idea how to defeat Voldemort there... But as it was almost two in the afternoon, he had to make a break for some (late) lunch. Even Hermione had left the library already.

* * *

The two Gryffindor students returned to the library together forty minutes later, quietly discussing dementors – this was what the bushy-haired witch was reading about today (and Harry was a bit surprised with now many books mentioning them his friend managed to find). The problem though was when Hermione asked him what he was looking for: he couldn't just say her the truth, and he doubted that he could successfully lie to her. So he settled for a compromise, saying that he was just looking for something interesting... Thankfully, the witch didn't pester him about it anymore.

Once again Harry browsed the library for anything that could help him solve his dark lord problem in any way, selecting another group of books on various areas of magical knowledge. And while these books indeed had some really interesting things described in them, nothing was of any use to him in his secret quest, as Harry learned throughout the several hours he spent with his nose in the tomes...

**~/ *** \~**

Later that evening the green-eyed wizard was sitting with his friends in the Gryffindor common room, a book on magical healing in his lap, when a decidedly nervous and slightly blushing Katie Bell approached him – this was rather strange as Harry couldn't remember when he last saw her alone, and not in the company of the two other 'vixens', when they was not attending their classes. She stopped just next to the armchair he was occupying, looking like she wanted something, yet wasn't sure how to ask for it or something; and she blushed more when he looked up at her, silently asking her what she wanted.

"Mm?" He 'asked' as he put the bookmark into the tome as he closed it, while turning to face the (slightly older) girl. She seemed to become even more uneasy from this, but still she finally answered him:

"C-Can I have you... can I have a minute of your time, Harry?" She asked, blushing pretty and a lot from her 'slip of a tongue'. Even though something was telling Harry that Katie acting this unusually bashful could lead him into some kind of embarrassing situation, he didn't see any reasons to deny her her request. Raising his eyebrow, he silently asked her again what she wanted, but instead he got a bashful: "Not here... S-Someplace more private, please." Now this was interesting, but the young wizard still saw nothing wrong with going and listening to what she had to say...

"Very well." He said, before getting out of the armchair and placing his book on the seat, so that it won't be occupied by someone else (even if Hermione and Neville would keep it for him anyway). The young Potter then followed the 'vixen' as she headed to the secluded corner of the Gryffindor common room, looking back from time to time to check that he was with her, all the while her blush refused to leave her face.

"Harry..." The witch said once they were there. Though, it looked like the rest of what she wanted to say refused to leave her mouth at the moment. "Do you... Do you want me, Harry?" I took her a moment to understand what exactly she said, and when she did, she hastily added "As you girlfriend." while looking away and blushing a much deeper shade of red. The green-eyed wizard now too had a blush not unlike Katie's on his face. And with how her question caught him off guard (especially since he knew her to be such a tease, much like the other two 'vixens'), he blurted out the first thing that came to his mind:

"Are you serious?" The girl didn't answer him with words. Instead she pushed him against the wall and pressed her lips to his, effectively stealing his first kiss. Katie, despite having him at her mercy at the moment, didn't push forward – she herself had kind of rushed into this: yes, she was attracted to him, but was it love? – and their kiss didn't evolve into a french one. It was more than enough to show that this was not a prank of some kind and she was indeed serious about this. Well, it would be the case if the young Potter could think straight... "Wow." This was the only thing he could say at the moment... Katie silently agreed with him there: while this wasn't her first kiss – Alicia and Angelina made sure of that – she had never kissed any guy for real before, as well as this was the first time she was the dominant one... And it did feel great.

For the next several and very long moments, both teens were silent; they both also were blushing and not daring to look into each others' eyes. Harry also seemed to be in some sort of trance from their kiss. But this couldn't last forever, and soon the brown-haired witch broke this uneasy silence:

"So?.." She said carefully, while tilting her head to the side a bit. "What do you say?" It seemed, though, that the wizard in front of her wasn't completely back to reality yet, as he could only nod dumbly. Still, that was the answer Katie wanted, and without much thought, she kissed him again. And was it just her, or was he really kissing her back?

**~/ *** \~**

Next morning Harry woke up like normal – meaning really early – and since he was sure that his new girlfriend will be asleep for another couple of hours, he decided do something productive meanwhile. First of all, he went downstairs to the common room to collect the paper that Hermione had put on the bulletin board to collect the signatures for the lawsuit he was preparing... Not unexpectedly, almost if not everyone in Gryffindor, as well as their head of the house, had signed on this paper.

Well, the young lord Potter-Slytherin still had to get the signatures from the other three houses before sending the letter to Violet tonight, but that didn't mean that he couldn't start composing it right now... But thirty minutes later he was done with it for now, and most of the students in the Gryffindor house, including his friends and his new girlfriend, aside from Hermione, were still sleeping, so he decided to join the bushy-haired witch for some 'early' breakfast.

There were quite a few more students down there in the Great hall, but all in all, it seemed like this day will be as lazy as the previous one was... Or not, as about ten minutes later Oliver Wood, already partially in his quidditch gear, appeared, along with Gred and Forge, who looked like they were still sleeping, thus making an impression of two red-headed walking dead.

"You're already up, Potter?" The Gryffindor team captain said. "Good. We can't have our first training this season without our seeker." He made a pause, looking at the Weasley twins that were piling food on their plates. "We will be starting in forty minutes." And with those words he went to an empty seat not far away from where Harry was to have some breakfast himself...

The chaser trio soon too arrived to the Great hall, and Katie went to sit next to her new boyfriend, whom she greeted with a kiss on his cheek. This caused the twins to wake up for long enough to whistle and congratulate Harry with scoring such a girl, but they still preferred to save their energy for (undoubtedly) brutal training their resident quidditch fanatic will surely put them through.

"You're with Katie now, right, Potter?" A voice asked Harry while two hands were put onto his shoulders heavily. Looking up, he saw Angelina and Alicia standing behind him with serious expressions on their faces... He nodded. "Break her heart and we will break your head." Angelina threatened. Unfortunately for her, the impression she wanted to make was spoiled by Oliver Wood who shouted about not allowing his star seeker to be harmed 'till Gryffindor team won the cup... Aside from this, though, the breakfast passed quietly for Harry, and he was quite thankful for this.

* * *

Surprisingly enough, Wood limited the training today only to three and a half hours, ending it just as the lunch was about to start, before telling the team that they were free for the rest of the day. Of course with how much of a slave-driver he was, no one waited for him to change his mind...

The lunch, while much more lively than breakfast several hours ago (mostly because entire school was up by now), too was rather quiet and without any major incidents. Katie and Harry again said together at the table, and now they were holding each others' hands under the table from time to time. Hermione and Neville sat across from them. The two had instantly accepted the older witch as their friend's girlfriend and included her into their circle of fellowship – Katie being a year older than them normally hanged around Alicia, Angelina and the rest of the Gryffindor house quidditch team, as well as her yearmates and not with the younger students.

While the lunch indeed passed without any incidents for Harry and his friends, just as they were leaving the Great hall, heading back to their common room, they were confronted by Daphne, Astoria and Tracey. Interestingly enough, Draconica wasn't with them, though. Of course, if the young Potter saw her (or, more accurately, her reaction to him getting a girlfriend) during the lunch, he'd understand why she wasn't there now...

"These are the signatures from house Slytherin." The older of the Greengrass sisters said as she passed a folded piece of parchment to Harry. "Ms. Bones said that she will give you the rest of the signatures during dinner." Nodding, the green-eyed wizard took the parchment.

"Thank you." He said, unfolding it and looking through it. While there weren't as many signatures, the majority of the 'snakes' still wanted the one who ordered the unsupervised dementor to check them to be punished... Surprisingly enough, Harry could see Snape's signature on the list: he was under the impression that the Hogwarts' potions master wouldn't agree with a Potter even if he said that the sky was blue. Though it was possible that Daphne – it looked like she was the one to organize the whole thing in her house – just forgot to mention that it was him, who would be filing the lawsuit... Folding the parchment back, Harry thanked her again, and then he, along with his Gryffindor friends, was back on his way to their tower.

* * *

Later in the afternoon, when the Gryffindor flying foxes were busy with whatever they were doing, the young lord Potter-Slytherin decided to do some 'exploring' and find out what the Room of the lost things really was. But before going to where the room itself was, he decided to ask the house elves about it, so he headed to the kitchens – the only place where he surely would meet some of them.

Indeed, when he arrived to the kitchen, several dozens of the house elves were there, working hard to prepare the dinner for tonight. But as soon as Harry entered the kitchens one of the elves, who was chopping some vegetables before then, approached him:

"What young master be wanting?" The little creature asked, looking up at him with its big eyes.

"Um..." The young wizard began, feeling a bit uneasy under elf's devoted gaze. "What can you tell me about the Room of the lost things?" He finally asked. The elf thought for a couple of seconds before answering:

"You be talking about Come and go Room?" The little creature said. "This be very good room. It be helpful to who be needing help." The elf made a small pause, before continuing: "It be always there, be waiting for when it be needed, young master. You be needing to walk trice where it is, thinking of what you be needing, and Come and go Room will appear with what you be needing." Harry thought about it for a moment: a room with almost limitless uses... This was some really incredible magic that created and supported it... Thanking the elf for the information it shared with him, the young wizard headed to the seventh floor to see it for himself – it was really hard to believe that something like this was made...

* * *

Harry was just a corridor away from where the Room of the lost things – or Come and go Room, as the house elves called it – was, when he came across the Divination professor Sibyll Trelawny, a thin witch who wore large glasses that magnified her eyes to several times their natural size and made her look like some kind of an insect. She was draped in a gauzy spangled shawl and had innumerable chains and beads hung around her spindly neck, and her arms and hands were encrusted with bangles and rings. Also, she seemed to be drunk and was carrying an empty bottle of sherry.

"Ah, my dear, how nice to finally meet you in the physical world." The Divination professor said in an eerie (and more than slightly drunk) voice. "I foresaw our meeting today from a long time ago..." The young Gryffindor couldn't help but ask:

"And what would our meeting be about then?" Sibyll was silent for several seconds, far too long for one to believe that she had truly predicted this meeting.

"Fates hadn't told me why this would be happening..." Shrugging this off as a quackery, Harry continued walking towards the Room of the lost things, even if he had a suspicion that the Divination professor was going there herself. But just a couple of steps later, he caught an unusual movement from the corner of his eye. Turning around he saw that professor Trelawny was in some sort of a trans, and her eyes were faintly glowing. "**Soon...**" The witch said in a raspy voice that was so unlike her normal one. "**It will happen soon... Before the third moon as the day once more dominates the night... Soon the shackled servant shall break free... and rejoin his master... And the master shall rise again with his aid, greater than before... It will happen soon... Before the third moon of the dominating day...**" Just as she finished speaking, Sibyll lost her balance and fell heavily against the wall. "Is everything alright, my dear? Something happened?" She asked, once again speaking in her normal voice...

For some reason Harry suddenly wanted get somewhere far away from the witch so, shaking his head to say 'nothing', he hurried back to the Gryffindor common room: exploring the Come and go room could wait until later.

* * *

Even though the young lord Potter-Slytherin was almost sure that what he had heard today was a true prophesy, and rather important one, judging by its content, he did his best to put it out of his mind. And Katie helped him a lot with this, even if she didn't knew a thing about his encounter with Sibyll Trelawny...

During the dinner, just like Daphne told him, Susan Bones gave him the signature lists of both Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw houses, which meant that he finally could sent the package to Violet. And he almost did that as soon as he returned to the Gryffindor common room – Hedwig, feeling that she will be needed, was already there – but a though occurred to him. He could do so much more damage with this than just a single lawsuit that most likely will never be publicly known. So, smirking evilly, he added a postscript to his letter to Violet, telling her to anonymously send a copy of the draft of the lawsuit along with the copies of signature lists to the 'Daily Prophet' redaction. Yes, this would be a fine payback to the Ministry for that fake trial they had put him through...

* * *

That's all, folks!  
Leave me a **review**.


	38. Third year begins

Here's the newest chapter for the "_**Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord**_", enjoy!

*** Review response**:  
**Naginator**, **jafr86**, **Kyukon**, **Armacryss**, **Dark Neko 4000**, **Penny is wise**, **errobotter,** **god of all**, **Impstar**, **Danget the critic**, **Drack-10**, **Kine X**, **.owered**, **Super-Saiyan-3-Vegeta**, **JPElles**, **Evil-Overlord**, **joseph33759**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
**ElementalMaster16**, did some work on the "_**Beastmaster**_". The story is now complete, though there still may be some new posts there, depending on what I will think up. So...  
**Orchamus**, if you look a bit into what I wrote as the prophecy, while it was given so much earlier, it still speaks more or less about the same time interval.  
**fragglemaster**, answered you via PM.  
**Danget the critic**, **fragglemaster**, can you tell me, how you managed to post two reviews to the same chapter, even if they are just a double post?  
**Maleivius**, in a quite an unexpected way she will. You're welcome to try and guess, though.  
**obsessivegirl73**, heh, thanks. As for Harry/Draconica, it will begin in chapter 41. This is official now.  
**Awsomeness7**, not at the moment. But I will still write it. chapter 40, most likely. Yes, that will be in retrospect, but it's still better than nothing, I guess.  
**freezing1203**, true. Harry will be using medical and medicine-related spells as offensive ones.  
**Akuma-Heika**, the second saber is residing inside Gringotts' wall at the moment. I thought, I've covered this... As for the ova-clone situation. I'm not specializing in biology, so it will be hard for me to give you a detailed explanation of what I think had happened there. So, let's cut it to one word: magic. =)

*** Author's Note:** Sorry for being a week late with my return, but now I'm here, and so there will be weekly updates again. For some time, at least. Also, to the fans of my ongoing Naruto stories, "_**Pyro**_" will be updated really soon, with "_**Konoha's young sage**_" not long after that. Unfortunately, though, it seems that I'll have to put "_**the Demon and the Ghost**_" on the indefinite hiatus due to the lack of ideas. The story isn't dead though. Not at this moment, at least.

* * *

*** Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "_**Harry Potter**_" and its characters in any shape or form.

"human speech"  
"_wraith speech_"  
'_human thoughts_'  
"**powered speech / true prophecies by the seer**"  
"_**spells / parseltongue**_"

* * *

_This chapter is not beta-read yet.  
_

* * *

**chapter 38: Third year begins**

By Sunday evening there was student in Gryffindor who wasn't aware that Harry was now dating Katie, and some of the guys had congratulated the young Potter on scoring such a hottie. Oliver Wood, being his usual self, was thinking only about quidditch and as long this relationship didn't interfere with his team's playing he didn't mind it... Of course, there also were those jealous of Harry's apparent luck – namely, that was Ron and some of the older years who wanted Katie as their own – but the green-eyed wizard didn't care about those gits.

The next morning the new couple grew a bit bolder about their relationship, and they went down to the Great hall holding each others' hands. Thankfully, this didn't cause any major incidents, though, Harry was sure, that if Snape or Umbridge saw them like that, he'll lose points for indecent behavior or something like that – those two seemed to have a thing against him...

Just as the breakfast began, the owl post arrived, and many of those present in the Great hall received today's edition of the 'Daily Prophet'. And since the newspaper had the article about how ministry almost got Hogwarts students kissed by dementors, along with the collective lawsuit (and all two hundreds and something signatures under it) printed under it on the third page, there was quite an uproar about it, both among the students and among the professors...

Dolores Umbridge, not taking kindly to the ministry being portrayed in a bad light, tried to ban the 'Daily Prophet', and all other media, from Hogwarts, but she was quickly reminded by Dumbledore, who too didn't look very pleased with what the article was saying, that as she was just a DADA professor, she didn't have authority to do that.

Seeing the reactions of those two to the article, Harry was really glad that Violet send the lawsuit anonymously and it couldn't be easily tracked back to him – or, he was sure, he will be spending the entire year in detentions from the toad-like woman. Or worse...

At the end of the breakfast, just like she always did, professor McGonnagal handed out the timetables to the students of her house. When he got his, the first thing Harry noticed were the fifth periods he now had, as well as the electives that were now there, along with all of the core classes:

_**Monday**__: double Potions (S) – lunch – Charms (H) - double Ancient Runes (all).**  
Tuesday**: double Herbology (S) – lunch – Transfiguration (H) – free period – Arithmancy (all).**  
Wednesday**: Care for Magical Creatures (all) – Charms (S) – lunch – double Potions (S).**  
Thursday**: double Transfiguration (R) – lunch – Herbology (H) – double History of Magic (R).__**  
Friday**: Transfiguration (H) – Charms (R) – lunch – double DADA (all) – Astronomy (all) at 11 pm._

Aside from double Potions first thing on Mondays, the timetable wasn't that bad, Harry decided. Sure, having five periods a day sounded a bit troublesome, but he was sure that will manage... His further musing about his timetable was interrupted by a happy outcry coming from Ronald Weasley:

"Only Care for creatures on Wednesdays and then it's a free day! It's so cool!" Unfortunately for the redhead, professor McGonnagal decided to bring him back to Earth.

"Mr. Weasley, professor Dumbledore will be tutoring you personally on Wednesdays." She said, while looking pointedly at him. "And if I were you, I'd make sure that I learn as much as I can from him." Ron seemed to shrink in size as he sulked about losing his 'supposed' free day, while several of the less bright younger students – those who blindly believed into him being the chosen one – were mooning about how cool he was to have great Albus Dumbledore teaching him great magics...

* * *

As he waited for professor Snape to call them into the classroom, Harry saw that Draconica was still avoiding him, like something bad would happen, should she get too close to him. Her face, schooled into the absolutely neutral expression, betrayed no reason for this. And with how distanced from him she seemed right now, the young Potter just couldn't find it in himself to approach her and ask what was wrong... The green-eyed wizard didn't get a chance to think more about why his friend was avoiding him as the door of the classroom opened, revealing a rather annoyed Potions master.

"Get in." Professor Snape barked, and the students, both from Gryffindor and Slytherin, filed into the classroom, quickly taking their seats – everyone knew that it was better not to annoy Snape further when he was like this. Schooling his features into something that resembled his normal mien, the Hogwarts Potions master began his little speech about what his students will be doing this year. A couple of sentences later the professor was already giving a very brief introduction to the potion they will be brewing today: shrinking solution. "Instructions are on the board. You have until lunch. Begin."

Shaking his head at the lack of proper teaching, Harry put his cauldron on the magical fire and filled it with some water – despite what Snape said on the very first Potions lesson, there was some wand waving involved, even if it was just an _**augumenti**_ charm to add water into the cauldron. Then the young Potter, following the instructions on the board, began cutting up daisy roots into the small pieces. Since so far his task was mechanical, the young wizard allowed his mind to wander off a bit. So, as he wasn't exactly paying attention to what was going around him, he was a bit startled, when Snape spoke right next to his desk:

"So, Potter,.. tell us, how is it, to be around us, mere mortal? Want your fame back? That was the only thing you had to your name after all." Shaking his head, while silently cursing himself for the lack of awareness, Harry looked up at the man.

"I wish the things were like this from the beginning,.. Sir." Judging by the expression on Snape's face, this was a wrong answer.

"Five points from Gryffindor!" The Potions master barked. Harry, though, didn't show any of the reactions the man was hoping for, so, after several tense moments, Snape went away to bully some other poor soul. And he quickly found his next victim in the form of Ron Weasley, who proved to be far more responsive to the verbal attacks...

**~/ *** \~**

While third year Gryffindor and Slytherin students were having their first Potions class in the semester, back in London, Minister for Magic Cornelius Fudge was finishing signing his morning portion of the paperwork and was about to make a brake to have some tea and read his copy of the 'Daily Prophet'. Unfortunately for the man, he wasn't going to have a peaceful teatime, as a fury incarnate – very angry and irritated madam Bones – stormed into his office, her own copy of the newspaper in her hands.

"Fudge!" She roared, as she slammed her copy of the 'Daily Prophet' onto his table on the slew where the article about dementors 'checking' the train was. "What the hell you were thinking? Do you even understand what could have happened because of your foolish orders?"

"Huh? What are you talking 'bout, Amelia?" Cornelius replied, trying to get an idea what the woman in front of him thought he had done wrong. Of course, the article in front of him had all of the clues he needed, but Fudge didn't bother to look at it yet... And because of this, madam Bones only grew angrier with the man.

"Don't Amelia me, Fudge!" She barked. "And you know pretty well what I'm talking about! After all, it was you, who ordered to search the Hogwarts express with a dementor in attempt to catch Black." A small pause. "But I couldn't even think that you will send that beast without a group of aurors to control it. Do you know what could have happened? What if somebody was kissed?" The minister, while now having an idea of what got the head of the DMLE so riled up, still didn't see anything wrong with what he had done: after all he was trying to protect the children of the wizarding Britain from a maniac that Sirius Black was.

"The dementor was given an order, and it followed it. It wouldn't have kissed anyone who didn't deserve it." Amelia Bones was not impressed.

"How stupid are you? Do you really believe that your word is enough to control dementors? And what do you mean by 'who didn't deserve it'? And we need Black alive, so that we can know how he had escaped!" The witch shouted in such a way that Fudge pressed in to his armchair in an attempt to put some distance between her and himself.

"Well, its not like that lying bastard Potter will be missed." What a wrong thing to say...

"That's it!" Madam Bones hissed in a surprisingly collected voice. "I was just going to put you under the investigation for a gross negligence, but now... I'm calling for a vote of no confidence against you the next Wizengamot meeting." And not giving Fudge a chance to reply, she turned around and left his office.

'_Damn!_' The Minister for Magic thought: today was not his day. The worst thing, while under investigation, he had no authority over DMLE and couldn't order Amelia to stop the investigation, or fire her. And with how incorruptible she was, there was no chance of him bribing his way out of this mess... And the next Wizengamot session was tomorrow. Now Cornelius Fudge felt like crying...

**~/ *** \~**

Charms passed without any incidents for the young Potter and the rest of the third years: professor Flitwick had them reviewing what they had learned at the end of the previous school year. And the miniature man seemed to be very pleased with how little his students had forgotten.

Once the period ended, the class split into three groups: those who will now have Ancient Runes, those who were going to have Muggle Studies and those who didn't have any electives today. Surprisingly enough, the last group was by far the smallest, while the other two were more or less equal in numbers.

Those, who now had the Study of Ancient Runes, headed to the fifth floor, where professor's

Babbling's classroom was located. The classroom itself was a huge room, and each student was given quite some space, which, apparently was needed during the practical part of the course. On the walls there were various tables of runes and their meanings. There also were several rather ancient stone monoliths with runes carved on them, but all of those stood near professor's table.

The professor Bubbling herself, seemed to be working on something when the students filled into the classroom, as she was writing something in her notebook, while several tomes lay opened on her table. And so far she appeared so absorbed in her work that she didn't pay any attention to the students in her classroom...

A couple of minuter later, the second group of students – a mix of Slytherins and Ravenclaws – arrived to the classroom. Draconica, who was also taking this elective, once again took a seat as far away from him as possible, Harry noticed, once again promising himself to find out what was going on with her... But the bell rang and professor Babbling closed her notebook and walked in front of her table to begin the lesson.

"Good afternoon. I'm professor Bathsheda Babbling, and I will be teaching you about the art that the runes are. For the first semester we will be learning runic alphabets..." This caused several students to groan at the prospect of boring lectures. The witch, though, continued her speech like she didn't hear those: "But after that, your lessons will be mostly practical ones." She made a pause, studying the students in her classroom. "Now, before we begin our first lesson, does any of you have any questions?" Hermione (of course) raised her hand. "Yes, ms...?"

"Hermione Granger." The bushy-haired girl introduced herself. "Can you tell us, which runes are we going to study?" Professor Babbling nodded.

"This is a very good question, ms. Granger. First of all, you will learn Nordic and German runic systems, as well as Babylonian cuneiform. In your NEWT classes, I will also teach you Egyptian hieroglyphs and Ural writings." Hermione seemed to have her curiosity satisfied, and with no one else having any questions, professor Babbling began her lesson in which she introduced Elder Futhark runic system to her students...

While her class was quite interesting, by its end, Harry had to agree that having pure theory for the whole semester will be quite boring. But one really did need to know what he or she was working with before attempting to create their first runic array, so...

**~/ *** \~**

Tuesday was a pretty quite day for Harry. Draconica still did her best to avoid him, though it was becoming clearer to the young wizard that she was doing it not because she suddenly hated him, but because of some of her inner demons... The green-eyed Potter decided that he should give her some time to overcome whatever was 'possessing' her at the moment.

Herbology and Transfiguration today both were kind of a review lessons, like it was the case with the Charms. For Harry, the fourth period was free, while most of his Gryffindor classmates had Divination. The fifth period, though, was Arithmancy.

Having the reputation of the hardest elective course Hogwarts offered, it was the least popular, it seemed – there was only about a dozen of students attending it among the third years... The decorations on the walls of the classroom too weren't doing anything to change that opinion: those were complex calculations and spell charters that none of the third years could hope to understand in the next couple of years... At least, professor Vector was a pretty cheerful and pretty young witch that certainly didn't look like a boring academician, and while the subject she was teaching was indeed very hard, she tried to do her best to make it easier for her students to understand.

* * *

On Tuesday evening Harry got an owl from Ernst Schmidt, his proxy for the Potter Wizengamot seat, and in his letter, the wizard wrote about what had happened today. According to Herr Schmidt, today Wizengamot voted on the final details of the '94 quidditch world championship finals that would be held on the British isles. After that, the witches and wizards present were given a big file about the Triwizard tournament that Dumbledore wanted to resurrect during 1994-1995 school year.

Finally, Amelia Bones called a vote of no confidence against Cornelius Fudge. It was seconded by several other Wizengamot members, but somehow – likely because neither Dumbledore's party, nor Lucius Malfoy and his cronies wanted to lose their puppet minister – the man remained in his office...

Even though Harry had a gut feeling that this will bite him in the ass sometime later, in his response to Herr Schmidt, he told the man to study the documents about the tournament, and, if he felt it was all right, to vote for it.

**~/ *** \~**

While the young lord Potter thought that Hagrid was a good man, he still wasn't sure that letting him teach Care for the Magical Creatures to the younger years was a good idea – the Hogwarts gamekeeper surely didn't know what was and what wasn't dangerous for the children. No, Harry wholeheartedly agreed that hippogriffs were majestic creatures, but to show them to the immature third years on their first lesson? Thanks God no one was foolish enough to go against the instructions, or something truly bad might have happened...

* * *

Soon the Friday came, and it was time for their first DADA lesson of the year. And, of course, everyone hoped that this year the professor will be not useless. Unfortunately, the rumors, spread by those who already had had Defense, indicated that, if anything, Umbridge was worse the Lockhart, when it came to teaching. The fact that she, according to the timetable, taught all four houses at the same time only supported those rumors...

When the third years arrived to the classroom, the feeling my had that they won't learn much there only increased: the room was so damn pink and had an abundance of plates with drawn kittens for decorations, making it look nothing like a DADA classroom should.

"Well, good afternoon, class." _Professor_ Umbridge said as she rose from her seat behind the teacher's table. Several students mumbled 'good afternoon' in reply, which didn't satisfy the witch at all. "Tut, tut." She said. "That won't do, now, will it? I should like you, please, to reply 'Good afternoon, Professor Umbridge'. One more time, please. Good afternoon, class!"

"Good afternoon, Professor Umbridge." The class lifelessly chanted back at her.

"There, now." The woman said in a sickly-sweet voice. "That wasn't too difficult, was it? Wands away and quills out, please." Many students groaned or at least exchanged gloomy looks.

* * *

That's all, folks!  
Leave me a **review**.


	39. Bound to Ground

Here's the newest chapter for the "_**Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord**_", enjoy!

*** Review response**:  
**Naginator**, **Dark Neko 4000**, **joseph33759**, **Awsomeness7**, **obsessivegirl73**, **Kine X**, **god of all**, **Super-Saiyan-3-Vegeta**, **Sasparilla89**, **ElementalMaster16**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
**Orchamus**, well, Fudge was never portrayed as a bright man, in either canon or fanon.  
**Reishin Amara**, that will happen a bit (well, not a bit) later.  
**Alphawolfy288**, yes, this is cool, but, unfortunately, I had to go without this phrase. I can use it elsewhere, right?  
**.owered**, lemons will be soon. Chapter 41 & 42 the closest two, to be exact. ^_^ Yes, those will be true lemons and not some Solo-F you have encountered in this story already.  
**fragglemaster**, Harry, in the end will have no uber spells, but he'll use some of the spell you don't expect being used in duels to a great success.  
**The Swordslinger**, this will be revealed sometime during the fourth year, if I don't revise my plans. You're welcome to try and guess until then.

* * *

*** Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "_**Harry Potter**_" and its characters in any shape or form.

"human speech"  
"_wraith speech_"  
'_human thoughts_'  
"**powered speech / true prophecies by the seer**"  
"_**spells / parseltongue**_"

* * *

_This chapter is not beta-read yet.  
_

* * *

**chapter 39: Bound to Ground**

Surprisingly enough, madam Umbridge didn't take any points from Harry or put him in detention on the first DADA lesson. Well, if one can count reading a very boring chapter from very boring book a lesson – professor Quirrell, as bad as he was, explained the same idea in three sentences, and also had a small practical demonstration of what that meant; now there was only a theory...

Still, the young Potter found it rather suspicious that as strongly against him as she was, the senior undersecretary didn't make a move against him. Maybe she actually had a couple of brain cells and waited for him to make the littlest step out of the line, so that no one will be able to counter her measures against him on the grounds that they are unjust?

And the way _professor_ Umbridge 'taught' DADA was a far greater problem than the ministry witch herself was: she was down there with Lockhart (whose 'lessons' at least weren't boring as hell) on the list of the most useless professors Hogwarts had seen this century. Of course, the obvious solution for this problem was for the students to educate themselves in what they really needed to know...

So on Saturday afternoon, the first meeting of the Defense Studies group in this year was called. This was mostly an organizational meeting: just one lesson wasn't enough to judge their new DADA _professor_, even if it was quite clear that she wasn't going to teach them anything useful – after all, who makes the third years read for entire double lesson a boring text about what their already learned in like ten minutes two years ago? And also, Umbridge was teaching all four houses in all years simultaneously...

Everyone in the DS agreed that, should the things not improve, they will run the DS like they did during the previous school year, but they also will write an open letter to the educational committee, telling them about the situation at Hogwarts. Hopefully, then they would get a real teacher.

**~/ *** \~**

The second week of classes was quiet for Harry so far: with both him and the others still getting back into the rhythm of the Hogwarts life, most of the time was spent either attending the classes or doing the homework, which, as always, was plentiful. Soon, Friday came and, after two rather pleasant first lessons and a lunch, it was once again time for DADA. Madam Umbridge once again had them greet her 'properly', which the class (of course) did, but completely lifelessly, but it pleased the witch, so...

"Hem, hem... Now, children, let's see, how you mastered the first one." The pink-wearing woman looked through the list of students, searching for her victim. Though, everyone who was aware of how she seemed to loathe Harry know whom she will choose to answer. "Aha, Potter!"

"Yes?" The said young wizard responded from his seat. _Professor_ Umbridge locked her eyes on him. She bore his head with her gaze for a couple of seconds, before sighing.

"Ten point from Gryffindor for a complete lack of manners, Potter. Let's try again... Potter!" Harry spent the next moment – which felt as long as ages – trying to think of what she wanted him to say. Deciding that it was something like the greeting she made them do at the very beginning of the lesson, he made his try:

"Yes, professor Umbridge." The green-eyed youth said, looking at the senior undersecretary. For a second there was a tense silence. Then the witch sighed.

"Better, but still not what you ought to do, Potter. Another ten points from Gryffindor... How about another try? Potter!" Harry was thinking hard of what that bi-... what madam Umbridge wanted from him: he sure as hell didn't want to lose Gryffindor any more points... Judging from what she said regarding his previous attempt, he said the right thing, but still there was something missing, and he had to figure what it was, or his house will lose the last of the hard-earned points they had before this lesson... Then it dawned on him: he was sitting all this time: while most of the Hogwarts professors allowed to answer their questions without standing up, madam Umbridge didn't look like she was like them. Well, at least this theory was worth giving it a try...

"Yes, professor Umbridge." The young Potter said, while standing up from his seat.

"See, that wasn't too difficult, right?" The witch said in her sickly-sweet tone, while the expression of her face was telling that she wasn't all that pleased with her victim guessing what she wanted from him. "Now, Potter, tell me what, according to Wilbert Slinkhard, are the underlying principles of the defensive magic."

Harry sighed: did she want him to recite her the chapter? Most likely she did, and she likely wanted him to do so word to word. Well, hopefully not, as he barely remembered what the author of their textbook was writing about in that damned first chapter. Oh well... Sighing again, the green-eyed wizard began his answer, trying to make it as long as possible...

"Hm... Not bad, Potter, but make sure to do your homework better next time. Sit down." Madam Umbridge said, while giving off a feeling that she was not pleased with Harry giving such a long and 'detailed' answer. It was clear that she wanted him to say something wrong so that she would be able to take more points from him. Or whatever other 'punishment' her mind would cook up... "Well, since we've wasted enough time already, I will just assume that everyone else did the homework. So, now, children, let's start our second lesson." Tapping the blackboard with her wand, madam Umbridge made writing saying 'The principles of the defensive magic' appear on it. "The first chapter of your textbook was a shallow introduction of the defensive magic principles. Now you we will begin studying them in-depth. Please open page twenty eight and read the second chapter." ...And so another boring lesson began...

* * *

It was now near the end of the second DADA period, and Harry, pretty much like everyone else in the classroom, was bored out of his mind. Wanting to know how much of this torture he still had to endure, he pulled his watch out of his pocket and looked at the time: still fifteen minutes till the bell that would free them from this classroom... Sighing deeply, he closed the lid of the watch, returning them back to their place in his pocket, and continued staring at the book in front of him with an empty stare, not finding it in himself to actually try and read what was printed on the pages... Unfortunately for him, he had sighed to loudly, as madam Umbridge heard him.

"Ten points from Gryffindor for disrupting the class, Potter." The toad-like witch said with her eyes fixed on him... Since the green-eyed wizard was not expecting to be called at that moment, his reaction was kind of reflexive, something his minor training in mind arts could not control:

"What!" He blurted out, now definitely too loud. And this made Umbridge smile; not in a pleasant way of course.

"I see that you still don't understand that you can't misbehave in my classroom, Mr. Potter, and taking points doesn't seem to teach you anything. Maybe I should punish you with something more substantial?" The witch said in her (usual) sickly-sweet tone. "I heard that you love playing quidditch, Potter. Why don't I ban your from flying then?" Harry grit his teeth, but didn't respond: just like with Snape, it would only make things worse for him. ...This didn't mean that he won't try to bring this in front of professor McGonnagal in hopes that she will cancel this baseless punishment...

* * *

As soon as the damned lesson was finally finished, the young Potter headed to his head of the house in hopes that she'll do something about his predicament. After some searching, the green-eyed wizard found the professor McGonnagal in the corridor that led to both the Gryffindor common room and the deputy headmistress' office. Unfortunately for him, though, she remained quite indifferent to his pleas, stating that if madam Umbidge had punished him, he really did something that warranted the punishment. And even worse, she gave Harry a detention with Snape for losing all of the point house Gryffindor had earned in the last two weeks.

Even worse, just after professor McGonnagal finished with him, the young Potter ran into Oliver Wood, who, somehow, already knew about him being banned form flying. So he had to endure the second lecture about how bad he was, this time from his ex-captain...

**~/ *** \~**

The next day, Saturday, was not at all good for Harry as well: thanks to professor McGonnagal, he had a whole day of detention with Snape. And the Potions master, made sure that the green-eyed youth had a full day of scrubbing cauldrons: Harry wasn't even allowed to leave for some lunch – instead a house elf brought him some food to eat during a short break he was allowed to have.

And if the whole day of physical labor while being belittled by the sneering Potions _professor_ wasn't enough, because of his detention Harry had to miss the meeting of the DS. No, he was sure that his friends will be willing to repeat anything important that was said there, but this would not be the same as listening to that firsthand.

Plus, he didn't feel like he had any strength left in him at the moment... All he could do was reach the nearest armchair and drop into it. ...With his mind somewhere else, he didn't even notice Katie join him there, though when she wrapped her hand around his shoulders and pulled him in a loose hug, he finally noticed his girlfriend. She too looked worn out – Oliver had trials for the new seeker, and then there was a brutal five hours long training session to get Fay Dunbar – a pureblood witch who was a fan of quidditch, though she preferred being a beater over seeker – used to how the team was playing.

The two, though, didn't exchange words and just sat there together, drawing their strength from each other. Still their 'perfect' idyl couldn't last forever... And Katie was the first one to speak:

"Harry..." The pretty witch said quietly as she pulled her boyfriend closer to herself. "Tomorrow is the Hogsmeade day. Will you accompany me there?"

"Like on a date?" The young lord Potter asked back, making his girl smile at him.

"Like on a date." She confirmed with a small nod.

"Sure." The green-eyed youth replied with the smallest of shrugs. In response, his girlfriend nuzzled into the crook of his neck, still hugging him to her (rather developed) body.

Soon the clock stroke ten, and Katie, giving him a goodnight kiss on the cheek, headed to the girls dormitories. Sighing, Harry decided that he too should head for the bed if he didn't want to be fresh and well-rested tomorrow.

**~/ *** \~**

The next morning Harry woke up early as usual, and after doing some exercises to keep himself fit, did some reading on his medical studies, while most of the other Gryffindor students were still sleeping... Finally, at about nine o'clock 'the masses' began descending to the common room from the dormitories, and this was a signal for the young Potter that his reading time was over. So, once he saw his Katie, he set the tome down and greeted his lovely girlfriend and taking her hand as the two of them headed to the Great hall for some breakfast.

The breakfast itself was much more lively than normal, as the third-years were making their guesses about what the Hogsmeade is like, while older students either laughed hearty at their guesses or were actually telling the stories, truthful and not, about what the village was...

As he was eating his breakfast, Harry also noticed Ronald Weasley alternatively glaring at Oliver Wood and Fay Dunbar. It looked like the 'chosen one' went to the seeker trials as well, but wasn't picked, which he though was very unfair. Oh well, from what the green-eyed wizard had seen, Ron wouldn't be a good seeker anyway... Though some might have tried to put him on the team just because of what he was declared to be by Dumbledore. Thankfully, Oliver wasn't like that, and everyone on the team was there, because they had talent.

* * *

Once the breakfast was over, Harry and Katie, along with the rest of the older students headed to Hogwarts' front doors, where the carriages that will be taking them to Hogsmeade were. Still, those who hadn't passed their OWLs had to give their signed permission slip to professor McGonnagal, before they could leave the castle grounds. NEWT-level students, unless banned form visiting the village, could leave as they pleased... Once Katie passed her permission slip to the deputy headmistress, it was Harry's turn, and so he handed his to the Scott witch. Professor McGonnagal was ready to say that he could go, when she noticed something:

"Mr. Potter, I'd like you to know that you can't sign your own permission slips." She said sternly, but the young wizard wasn't fazed by this.

"According to the rules, the permission slip to be valid should be signed by one's adult blood relative or a guardian." The deputy headmistress of Hogwarts raised her eyebrow as she tried to see where the young Potter was heading with this. "And I'm my own blood relative." That was obvious... '_Guess, the cat is out of the bag..._' Harry though, while willing the Potter ring he wore to become visible. "...As for me being an adult..." He showed it to his Transfiguration professor... Having seen Charles and then James wear this ring, professor McGonnagal easily recognized it, and what it meant: Harry Potter was a legal adult.

"Very well, Mr. Potter." She said. "You can go."

"Harry? You're a lord?" Katie asked her boyfriend in a whisper, not wanting to attract more attention to them – she knew ho much he hated when people were gawking at him.

"Yeah, since the beginning of this summer." He replied. "Does this change anything between us?" He asked then, looking into Katie's eyes.

"Of course not, silly." She replied, before giving him a light kiss. Which still earned them a light glare from their head of the house.

"That's my Katie." Harry said, before taking his girlfriend's hand. "Now, shall we explore the village?" He asked rhetorically.

* * *

Visiting a completely magical settlement was a new experience for Harry, even if he had visited Diagon alley more than just several times. Hogsmeade wasn't very big, roughly a hundred houses (plus the Shrieking shack), most of which were shops ranging from Honeydukes that sold various magical sweets to a branch of Olivanders' wand shop. There also was an owl-post station in the village, as well as several pubs, the most popular of which was called 'Three broomsticks'.

With Katie as his guide, the visit to Hogsmeade was quite exciting for Harry: his girlfriend seemed to know quite a lot of interesting little facts about the village, and she happy to share this 'knowledge' with him. While also getting him to buy her a sizable chunk on Honeydukes chocolate in the process...

The couple decided to have their lunch at 'Three broomsticks'. While the pub was rather crowded with Hogwarts students visiting the village, they still easily found a table for themselves to sit at. And it just had to happened that Draconica and her friends were occupying the table next to theirs...

As they exchanged greetings, Harry noticed that his blond friend from Slytherin was trying to keep her distance from him – at the same time Astoria was trying to make eyes at him – but as they now were in a more relaxed atmosphere, compared to Hogwarts, the young Potter managed to get a glimpse of what was going on behind Draconica's mental shields. And what he saw surprised him: it was almost like she was acting against her true desires. Did she actually want to be with him? He didn't knew the answer to this question, but it still took a great weight off his mind – she didn't suddenly hate him after all...

**~/ *** \~**

By four o'clock in the afternoon, the young couple returned to Hogwarts, with Harry still in a slight daze from all of the interesting things and places of Hogsmeade he was shown by his wonderful girlfriend. Though, he supposed, now that he had seen everything of interest in the village, his reasons for visiting it would be limited to buying things he needed, having dates or just getting out of the castle for some time...

Now, though, there was one more thing he had to do today: tonight Susan will be sending the open letter to the educational committee they had previously compiled, and he had to pass the signatures form the house Gryffindor to her... And with how many members of the house of Lions had signed under this letter, Harry was quite positive that they'll manage to remove Umbridge from the castle. There was even a chance that they'll finally get someone competent as their DADA professor...

* * *

That's all, folks!  
Leave me a **review**.


	40. DMLE solution

Here's the newest chapter for the "_**Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord**_", enjoy!

*** Review response**:  
**The Swordslinger**, **Naginator**, **Orchamus**, **obsessivegirl73**, **Impstar**, **ElementalMaster16**, **god of all**, **.owered**, **Penny is wise**,** twilightnemo**, **awsm125**, **jafr86**, **reven228**, **FF-loverHP1**, **JPElles**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
**enapace**, no, not a chance... though... at the very end, the possibility of expanding the pairing from Harry/Draconica to Harry/Draconica/? will be discussed by the characters themselves (yes, this is a major spoiler).  
**Sasparilla89**, do I have to remind you that we all (well, most of us) grow more calculative and patient as we grow up? It was said somewhere, that if sorting was held, when the characters are 15, 99% will go into Slytherin.  
**Kyukon**, well, I'm sure that you'll like what I have in store for chapters 41 & 42. Be patient for a tiny little bit more.  
**Awsomeness7**, that will happen in the chapter 42, oh the impatient reader of mine. =)  
**Super-Saiyan-3-Vegeta**, no, Astoria will play no role in that break up. But she will be considered as a possible lady Potter at the end of the story. ^_^

* * *

*** Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "_**Harry Potter**_" and its characters in any shape or form.

"human speech"  
"_wraith speech_"  
'_human thoughts_'  
"**powered speech / true prophecies by the seer**"  
"_**spells / parseltongue**_"

* * *

_This chapter is not beta-read yet.  
_

* * *

**chapter 40: DMLE solution**

Draconica sighed as she dropped on her bed in her personal room in the Slytherin dorms. Why, oh why, everything had to be so difficult in the real life? Especially the last couple of weeks. When she first heard through the rumor mill that Harry got himself a girlfriend, she a bit sad that he had chosen somebody else, but ultimately more than OK with it.

That was not the case, though. When she saw the young lord Potter with his girlfriend, she became jealous, really jealous, of Katie, and wished to be in her place. Even if she knew well that she shouldn't let this happen, and not only because of the contract she was bound by... So, in hopes that this will pass, Draconica decided to distance herself from the green-eyed wizard, but with the classes Gryffindors and Slytherins had together, and DS on Saturdays, it was really hard for her to keep her distance from him. And with Harry still being as friendly as always, despite her sudden change of attitude towards him...

The blond witch shook her head. Today, during the Hogsmeade visit, she once again had to endure watching Harry and Katie together, and this only increased her desire to be the one with the green-eyed wonder-boy. And to make the things even worse, her body once again had that annoying itch down there, and it wasn't going away on its own anytime soon, especially with how her thinking of Harry was making it worse.

If the things continued like this, Draconica wasn't sure that she won't lose control over herself and do something embarrassingly stupid. She really needed to resolve this situation, yet she couldn't think of anything but oblivation that would make her forget her feelings. And who said that she won't get them the second time around? No, she needed something else... Yet, there seemed to be nothing.

She could also give in to her desires, before her body did that for her, but... She couldn't do that because of her contract, and she really didn't want to come between Harry and Katie, especially with how it could backfire at her. Damn, it seemed that she was caught in a corner, she saw no exit form...

The blond witch sighed and buried her head deeper into the pillow wishing that her problems would go away. But even she herself knew that this will not happen, no matter how much she wanted it...

**~/ *** \~**

Griselda Marchbanks was a witch three full decades older than Albus Dumbledore himself, yet she was still lively, despite her age. Madam Marchbanks was the head of the Educational Committee and the Governor of Wizarding Examinations Authority, occupying these posts for almost a full century now, and it was her task to ensure that the new generations of wizards and witches got a good education. While normally she collected all of the data she needed during her yearly visits to Hogwarts, when she administered OWLs and NEWTs to the students there, it didn't mean that she ignored her job for the rest of the year.

So, when on Monday, 13th September she found letter from Hogwarts waiting for her on her desk, she opened it right away: it was not usual for her to receive letters from students, so this one was something important – otherwise the wards wouldn't have let it in in the first place. And the contents of this letter made her frown. It looked like the quality of the DADA professors that Dumbledore had hired over the years had hit the new all-times low. The simple fact that majority of all four of the Hogwarts houses had signed under this open letter was a good indication of how bad the things were.

Still, not the one to rush the things, madam Marchbanks decided that she should do a small research to see what was going on with DADA at Hogwarts. And if she found the new DADA professor lacking... then she'll act.

* * *

It took madam Marchbanks whole two weeks to make her evaluation of what was going on at Hogwarts with the Defense Against the Dark Arts. And she was not very happy with her findings. While the textbook the current professor was using wasn't very bad per se, it definitely wasn't suited for the school children... The professor, though, was far worse than the books she was using: madam Umbridge was actually doing nothing to help the Hogwarts students learn DADA. If anything, the witch was doing the opposite, which was a crime in the eyes of madam Marchbanks.

Of course, the channels she used to get the information might have being faulty, so the commission was needed to be sent to observe the DADA lessons. And the head of the Educational Committee would have gone to Hogwarts herself, but, unfortunately, her old body didn't let her, and she had to delegate this mission onto the wizards who worked under her in the Committee.

Those men, though, weren't quick, and it took them another week to prepare, before they finally left London to investigate the situation at Hogwarts.

**~/ *** \~**

The last three weeks weren't easy for Harry, with how Umbridge tried to remove any and all of his privileges for reasons that were as stupid as 'breathing too loud'. And, of course, with him now being just Harry Potter, no one really bothered to check, whether his punishments were just or not. And what was worse, so far Susan got no response from the Educational Committee, so no one really knew, whether they would come with an inspection or not.

That question was answered on Wednesday, 6th October, when a group of three wizards with badges for the Educational Committee arrived to Hogwarts near the end of breakfast. Of course, neither Dumbledore, nor Umbridge herself were happy to see the inspection, but as sending them right away would be detrimental to them, there was nothing they could do to prevent them from doing their work (or at least making an impression of them doing their work).

And, unfortunately, the inspection didn't do their work for real, as they left during the lunch that very day with their pockets all but overflowing with gold, making it obvious that they just took a bribe to write that everything is all right in their report, no matter what the reality was.

**~/ *** \~**

Despite his fears, Umbridge didn't 'attack' Harry immediately, but the green-eyed wizard, even if he wasn't the one to actually send the letter, didn't have to wait for her retaliation for too long: on Friday, during DADA lesson, the toad-like witch gave him a detention with herself, something she hadn't done before, so the young Potter was understandably apprehensive. And it turned out that he had a reason for that...

"Do come in." _Professor_ Umbridge said in a way that made it clear that Harry will not leave her office soon. "Sit." She ordered then, pointing at the desk with a long roll of parchment on it that stood in the corner of her office. Once the green-eyed youth was sited, she continued, still using that nasty sickly-sweet tone of hers. "I want you to write lines with this special quill of mine." The toad-like witch said, while handing harry a dark-red, almost black quill.

'_This is a blood quill, class D restricted item._' Harry thought as he recognized the item. While not harmful when used to sign a document or two, the blood quill could cause permanent scaring, if used to write the same thing over and over for hundreds times. This way, it could be categorized as a torture device. Still, despite this, the young Potter decided to go on with his detention: if he got the evidence and contacted DMLE, the chances were, they would remove Umbridge from Hogwarts. Maybe even send her to Azkaban for this.

"I want you to write 'I must not undermine the authority of the Ministry'." Meanwhile, the senior undersecretary continued. "You will write this line for as long as it will take the message to sink in." Nodding – no reason to make the witch suspect that he was on to something – Harry wrote the line for the first time, doing his best not to hiss in pain as the words were carved on the back of his non-writing hand. Yes, this thing indeed was a blood quill, and Umbridge was using it to torture him. DMLE will definitely have to come to investigate this, and with madam Bones there – Susan's aunt will surely be there as well, at least to get out of her office – Umbridge won't be able to use bribes to buy her freedom...

For the next four hours Harry had to endure the pain of the words being carved onto the back of his left hand over and over again, till that actually created a bleeding wounds. In the end, at about nine in the evening, the senior undersecretary decided that she was sick of him being an eyesore, and let him go.

And once he was free, the green-eyed wizard all but ran back to the Gryffindor tower, determined to get the evidence he needed to proceed with his plan to deal with Umbridge... In the doors to the common room, though, Harry ran into Katie, Hermione and Neville, who all were worried about him. While showing them the result of his detention with the evil witch that was their DADA professor did nothing to calm them down, the young Potter managed to explain the trio his plan. And while they were far from happy with it – they didn't want him to get hurt – they agreed that this was the best plan they had, now that the Educational Committee proved to be full of bribable bureaucrats.

With his friends calmed down a bit, Harry went to find Colin Creevey – the second-year boy had the camera that the green-eyed teen needed. The boy in question wasn't hard to find, as he was playing wizarding chess with his younger brother Dennis in one of the corners of the common room. And since he didn't need his camera at the moment, the young lord Potter easily talked him into lending him the camera...

An hour later Harry was sealing his letter to Violet, asking her to redirect the photo of his detention-wounds and his statement about what had happened (both today and on Wednesday) to DMLE, preferably to madam Bones.

**~/ *** \~**

Madam Bones, as always, acted quickly, and on Saturday morning, just when the breakfast was in full play, she rolled up to Hogwarts along with a small contingent of aurors.

"What's going on there?" Madam Umbridge asked from the professors' table, when the DMLE operatives, led by the head of the department herself, entered the Great Hall. Amelia marched up to that table.

"Dolores Jane Umbridge, in accordance with paragraph 138, section C, and paragraph 89, section A, you are under arrest for illegal use of class D restricted item with intent of torture and for giving bribes to ministry officials. You have the right to remain silent. Everything you can say can, and will be used against you in a court of law." The head of the DMLE said, while signaling her aurors to arrest the witch. Of course, the toad-like wasn't about to let herself be arrest, but, really, what she could do against four fully-trained wizards?

So, a minute later, Umbridge, already handcuffed and silenced – aurors didn't want to listen to her rant about what the Minister would do to them when he hears about this – was escorted out of the Great hall... Amelia, though, wasn't done yet.

"In accordance with Hogwarts charter, paragraph 107, section A, I, Amelia Susan Bones hereby restore all house points unjustly taken by Dolores Jane Umbridge." The witch declared loudly, and moments later rubies, one hundred and twenty of them, began falling into the lower part of the Gryffindor hourglass, signifying that all of the points that Fudge's senior undersecretary had taken from Harry were restored. "In accordance with Hogwarts charter, paragraph 107, section C, I, Amelia Susan Bones hereby lift all unjust bans placed by Dolores Jane Umbridge on Hogwarts students."

Now, this concluded her business there, and, after asking for forgiveness for interrupting the breakfast, Amelia Bones left Great hall of Hogwarts.

* * *

It was about an hour after the arrest of Umbridge, and Harry was reading one of his tomes in the common room, when Oliver Wood, along with Fay Dundar, approached him.

"So, you are now free from those bans?" The captain of the Gryffindor quidditch team asked, getting a nod from the green-eyed youth in response: madam Bones in her act today had lifted all of the bans Umbridge had placed on him, including the one that prevented him from playing. "Good." Oliver continued. "I want to try to get back your position of our seeker." Fay nodded behind him – she wasn't exactly great at being a seeker, even if she was the best among those, who had tried out.

"OK." Harry said with a nod.

"Then I expect you to be at the pitch at nine in the morning tomorrow." The resident quidditch fanatic of the house Gryffindor said, before turning around and walking away, no doubt to rethink the team strategies for the event that they'll have their star seeker back.

"You aren't angry, that I may take your place on the team from you?" Harry asked Fay then. The witch just shrugged, before replying:

"It's your place. After all, I'm better as a beater, aren't I." She said with a light smile on her face that showed that her words were true.

"Thank you." The young Potter said. Fay nodded and, turning around, headed to the other end of the common room, where her friend was sitting with several books about divination in front of her.

**~/ *** \~**

Like it was two year ago, when Harry had first joined the team, the seeker try outs consisted of Oliver Wood releasing a group of snitches, while the Weasley twins played the role of the beaters of the opposing team. And while the green-eyed wizard had to admit that Fay was good, like she had said him, she was more of a beater, so, while she made it quite challenging for him, the young Potter won his place on the team back before it was the lunch time.

The afternoon of that day passed pretty much uneventful for Harry, as he was doing a catch-up on his potions homework – _professor_ Snape told them to write whole two feet of parchment about basic poisons and their antidotes...

After the dinner, though, things became much more fun, as Gred and Forge smuggled a couple of bottles of fire-whiskey to the Gryffindor common room from somewhere, and began celebrating Harry's return onto the team. And the prankster duo was quickly joined by the Alicia and Angelina, along with the freeloaders who wanted some alcohol. The young Potter himself, though, didn't want to get drunk and so didn't join the Weasley twins the co.

"You won't be joining them?" Katie asked as she sat down next to her boyfriend. "They are celebrating in your honor, are they not?" The green-eyed wizard shook his head.

"Nah, don't want to suffer from hangover tomorrow morning." Was his reply. The witch just shrugged, before suddenly moving into his lap and, after pinning him against the back of the armchair he was sitting in, proceeded to kiss the hell out of him.

"Welcome back to the team, Harry." She said once they broke the kiss. Then she continued snogging him. And the green-eyed teen was thoroughly enjoying the attention his girlfriend was lavishing him with.

**~/ *** \~**

The third year Hogwarts students filled into the DADA classroom. Despite madam Umbridge being arrested, the lessons weren't canceled, nor there were any rearrangements in the timetables, which meant that some substitute professor was found... And, indeed, just as the bell rang, a wizard in his early twenties entered the classroom. He was tall – six feet and then some – and it looked like he could fight with his fists as well as he could with his wand. He had very short dark-brown hair and steel-gray eyes, that clearly told everyone that he was dead serious.

"Good afternoon." He greeted the students there. "I'm second year auror trainee Samuel Stone, and on madam Bones' orders I will be teaching you Defense Against the Dark Arts for the time being." The wizard said. "It appears that you had no competent professors, so you'll have to work extra hard this year to catch up with what you should know." While several of the more lazy students groaned at the prospect of having to do more work, most were happy that they finally got someone who will teach them DADA for real.

* * *

That's all, folks!  
Leave me a **review**.


	41. Flying towards the heavens

Here's the newest chapter for the "_**Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord**_", enjoy!

*** Review response**:  
**raw666**, well, you're right. (**Orchamus**, you too) But the ministry, as always, will try to keep its good face, so we won't learn this form the story =)  
**Hiruko the Baku**, damn man, you should have waited for just one chapter. Pairing is H/D from now on.  
**ElementalMaster16**, **Naginator**, **reven228**, **JPElles**, **obsessivegirl73**, **Penny is wise**, **Awsomeness7**, **.owered**, **Super-Saiyan-3-Vegeta**, **god of all**, **jafr86**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
**gameroy**, "Sam I am" (c) Sam. Anyway, appearance-wise and name-wise, you're right. As for the rest - this character won't play a major role in the story, so I saw no point in developing him that far... Also, you were one of the two, who noticed this, good work.  
**The Swordslinger**, will think about this.  
**ManlyMonk**, **fragglemaster**, Harry/Draconica begins this chapter.

*** AN**: I'm very sorry, but the next week there might be no update - my scientific projects keeps me too busy to keep up with my stories here as well. But, hopefully, I'll still manage to write a new chapter for your enjoyment.

*** Warning**: This chapter contains a lemon for the Harry/Draconica pairing.

* * *

*** Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "_**Harry Potter**_" and its characters in any shape or form.

"human speech"  
"_wraith speech_"  
'_human thoughts_'  
"**powered speech / true prophecies by the seer**"  
"_**spells / parseltongue**_"

* * *

_This chapter is not beta-read yet.  
_

* * *

**chapter 41: Flying towards the Heavens**

The next couple of weeks were quite tiresome for the Hogwarts students as they were adapting to how intense their new DADA professor's teaching was. But now they could finally say that they will learn something really useful this year...

Huge amount of the homework, though, wasn't the only thing that ate Harry's free time: now that he was back on the quidditch team, he was spending quite some time on the pitch, as Oliver Wood was running his team into the ground with long training sessions, which only grew more tiring as the first match of the season approached.

Still, despite all that, the young Potter somehow still found time to spend with his friends and his girlfriend (though they still were mostly just kissing or snuggling together), as well as to run the DS – everyone decided that they should continue with the group, despite finally having a competent DADA professor.

**~/ *** \~**

Before everyone knew it, Halloween was upon them, and the castle was decorate with carved pumpkins the size of a small carriage, spider webs and live bats... Having a history of bad events that had happened on this day, Harry was understandably apprehensive, but he still decided to attend the feast this year (with his girlfriend, of course).

The feast, actually was quite fun, the young Potter had to admit: the food and the company were great, and so was the entertainment that the headmaster had invited to the castle this year. But, most importantly, nothing that shouldn't have happened that night – aside from a couple of pranks by the Weasley twins, though no one could really prove that it was them – had happened, which was a pleasant surprise to the green-eyed wizard.

And while the feast lasted for quite some time, it still came to an end, and the students had to return back to their respective houses' common rooms. But this didn't mean that the night was over; not by a long shot. In Harry's case, Katie had pulled him into one of the quieter corners of the common room for some private time for themselves. Which, of course, the couple spent snogging...

* * *

Meanwhile, in the Slytherin dungeons, Draconica Malfoy was once again thinking about her personal life, but today, finally, she could see a possible way out of the 'deadend' she had found herself in more than a month ago: Weasley twins tonight were actually useful for something, as their prank had reminded the blond witch about one of the important rules of Slytherin life – don't get caught and you won't be punished.

While she indeed needed to keep her hymen intact, otherwise she'll have to suffer the fallout of the breach in her marriage contract, this, actually, by no means prevented her from doing _it_ the other ways, and Draconica wasn't a prude enough to think that other kinds of sex were something awful and something that shouldn't be done – those wouldn't exist now otherwise...

Still, the blond girl felt that she would need to be truly taken by her desired one as something even like position sixty-nine wouldn't be enough for her. But that left her with just one option. And she'd have to test it out by herself before asking _him_ to do _that_ to her. So, placing a couple of extra charms on the door of her room, sealing it completely, the young ms. Malfoy pulled of her robes and then her undergarment and, getting comfortable on her bed, went ahead with testing her idea to fix her personal life.

* * *

Very flushed Draconica lay on her bed breathing heavily, one of her hands still between her legs and the other still grouping her left breast, as she was swimming in the afterglow of the intense orgasm she had given herself while testing that idea of hers... Well, it looked like doing _that_ with her desired one would bring her (and him too, likely) a lot of pleasure, despite the seeming strangeness of the act, but the blond witch was also quite aware that doing _that_ right now wouldn't be the best idea: her body wasn't ready for having him there yet. She'll have to stretch herself a bit before that...

**~/ *** \~**

The first Sunday of November was they day of the first quidditch match of the season, Gryffindor vs. Slytherin per some tradition. This match was highly anticipated by the Hogwarts student population, and not only because it was the first one in the season: in the later years these two teams were the main runners for the cup, and the result of the match between them often made it clear, which team will win the cup at the and of the school year.

And Slytherin team was also fielding the new seeker this year, and since no one in the other houses knew, who it was, there were many speculations ...and a betting pool which was ran by the Weasley twins and their comrade Lee Jordan.

But it turned out that the new Slytherin seeker was no one other than the pompous brat that bore the name of Basilius Malfoy. And it was quite clear that he got the place on the team not for his talents: why he was not that bad on the broom, his skills as a seeker could be questioned even before he took off the ground... But that did not stop the boy from boasting about being the best seeker that Hogwarts had ever seen – and those who bothered to study the expressions on the faces of his teammates, would see that most of them were barely restraining themselves from shutting the boy through less than merciful muggle means. Well, Draconica (she continued playing quidditch this year) might be a bit more gentle with her younger brother, but she too looked like she wished for him to shut up and stop annoying people with his constant boasting.

* * *

Madam Hooch blew into her whistle, and the match began. Unfortunately for the both seekers, the day was dark with heavy clouds feeling the sky. Cold rain that would have quickly made their quidditch uniform dripping wet in minutes if not for the strongest water-repelling charms wasn't helping in catching the tiny golden ball that was the snitch either.

And the things were only getting worse, as the time went on. Sure, the vixens dominated the Slytherin chasers, but it did nothing to help end the game quickly, as the damned snitch did seem to be there at all. And the weather wasn't getting better either... At about two hours mark, Marcus Flint, the captain of the house Slytherin team, call a timeout, which both teams gladly used to reapply water repelling and warming charms to their uniforms – with how bad the weather was, they definitely would need those...

After the short break, the game continued, but the snitch still was hiding somewhere, which was annoying everyone: after all no one wanted to spend hours upon hours under the cold November rain... By the three hour mark, the Gryffindor team was leading by eleven goals and, if the things continued like this, were likely to win regardless of who actually caught the damned golden snitch. But, of course, they wished Harry would do that...

The game was already more than five hours long, when Harry finally saw the snitch for the first time. Making sure not to lose the sight of the golden winged ball, he began carefully approaching it, so that he would not alert the younger Malfoy about it: after all the blond boy had a significantly faster broom... But once the young Potter was sure he will be the first one to reach the snitch, he just sped after it. Basilius could do nothing to prevent him from ending the game...

"And this dreary match ends with the final score of four hundreds and thirty points for Gryffindor to One hundred and forty to Slytherin." Lee announced the moment Harry caught the snitch.

**~/ *** \~**

Harry wasn't sure what had kept him in the locker rooms for so long, as he was the last one to leave the Gryffindor ones today. Even Oliver Wood left before him – normally, the quidditch fanatic remained behind to do some work on the team strategies... Anyway, the young Potter just shrugged off this strange happening as something unimportant and hurried back to the castle, as it was already getting dark.

Wanting to get to the Gryffindor common room as soon as possible, the young wizard decided to take one of the many shortcuts that existed in Hogwarts, instead of following the usual and slightly longer way... Using a secret passage that began behind a fake portrait, he quickly got to the fourth floor and was about to continue on his way to the Gryffindor tower, when he saw Draconica a bit down the corridor. The blond witch was leaning against the wall, as if she was waiting for someone. Apparently, she was waiting for him, as the moment she noticed him there, she pushed herself off the wall and approached him...

"Come with me." She said in a rather soft tone, while doing her best to try to keep her usual cold mask on her face. Harry thought about what he should do for a moment, but then decided to see what his friend wanted, so, with a shrug, he followed the girl... Draconica led him into one of the unused classrooms, where it was highly unlikely that they will be disturbed even without all of those warding charms the blond girl had cast, once they were there.

"So... What did you need?" The green-eyed wizard asked, while glancing at the door, thus missing Draconica loosening the top part of her robes to nearly indecent level.

"Potter... Harry..." It was rare for the blond witch to call him by his first name, and now that she was using such a pleading tone, Harry couldn't help but feel himself intimate with her. And seeing her like she was, sitting on a desk in such a way that, even though she was still more or less fully clothed, it still left little to his imagination, only made that feeling stronger. Along with causing him to get a hard on. "Please..." She whispered, while also finally dropping her mask, allowing herself to blush. If she was incredibly cute before, now she became all but irresistible for the certain green-eyed wizard. "Please, take me." As she said that, Draconica ran her hand from her upper chest and down to her lower stomach.

"B-But..." The young Potter (now imitating a tomato with his blush) stuttered back, barely fighting away a desire to do just what the girl in front of him was asking. "What about your contract. Or what about..." Somehow, in a blink of an eye, the blond witch was in front of him, her index finger gently pressed against his lips as she silently told him not to say anything more.

"Don't worry, I won't breach my contract, and..." She made a very short pause. "Don't worry about anything else. It's just us there... So, please..." Harry could feel any and all of his defenses that still kept him from doing it with the beauty in front of him vanishing, and not even thoughts about Katie could do much to change this. Maybe he indeed saw 'Nica as a more worthy mate... "Please, Harry..." Draconica repeated, while looking into his eyes with her mesmerizing metallic-blue orbs as her hand moved on where his erection was hiding (poorly) in his trousers.

"O-Okay..." The young lord Potter replied with a sigh as he silently prayed that he will be forgive for what he was about to do.

'Nica smiled at him and did her best to quickly undo his pants. Which the blond witch managed only on her fourth try... And after pulling them and his boxers down, the Slytherin girl finally saw his member. It was not that big now – though still quite sizable for someone who had just entered his teens – but it was big enough for Draconica, especially with what she had in her mind for the 'night'...

Once she was done with his pants, the blond witch loosened the lower part of her robes to the point where they just slid off her frame onto the floor, revealing her legs and hips in all of their beauty. Moments later 'Nica's panties – actually quite plain ones – joined the robes on the floor, while the blond girl herself turned around and, after a quick spell cast towards her crotch, likely one to put some lubricant into her hole(s), bent over the desk, presenting her rear to the one she loved and desired.

Like most boys of his age, Harry had had dreamed that involved scantly clad or naked girls doing naughty things with him – it was normal, after all – but now that he was moments away from turning one of those dreams into reality, and with one of the hottest witches of Hogwarts to boot, he couldn't help but feel anxious. What if screws up? Or, what it...

"Harry..." Draconica called him, while wiggling her ass once to beacon him. This seemed to dispel his worries, as he approached her and prepared to aim to her pussy, which, he could see, was glistening in the dim light of torches with some of her juices – while no expert in sex by any means, Harry knew for the book he had read that this was a sign that the girl wanted _it_... He was surprised, though, when 'Nica slipped one of her hands down there to cover her snatch. "Not there, Harry." She said softly, confusing the green-eyed boy. "I need this virginity." She added in a whisper a second later.

"B-But..." Harry stammered out. Surely, she didn't mean that she wanted him to take her _that_ way? But she did, as she used her other hand to cup her ass-cheek, giving him a better view of her clean pinkish rosebud. "But that..."

"It's OK, really." The blond witch reassured him. "I wouldn't do this unprepared, and I surely wouldn't do this if I wasn't sure that we will like it... So, go ahead, take me there." Still not completely sure that this was what he should be doing, Harry did as 'Nica asked him. Gently pressing the tip of his cock to her anus, he began to slowly enter her ass. It was hot and very tight, but thanks to the magical lube, he could slide in without much problem. And despite its strangeness, the feeling was so pleasurable that the young Potter almost came from just sheathing himself in 'Nica's ass... And it might be that the blond witch was a perv as, judging by the moans she made, she was enjoying having him take her this way...

Still, Harry wasn't trusting himself not to cum right away if he started moving again, so he kept himself still for the next couple of minutes. And Draconica, while not exactly liking the lack of action, could understand him as he hoped to give her an orgasm as well, so she didn't urge him to go and pound into her. Instead, the Slytherin witch busied herself with playing with her pussy for the time being.

A couple of minutes later the green-eyed wizard finally decided that should be able to last long enough so that they both will reach their climaxes from the act, and so he began moving his cock out of her so very slowly, till a little more than a tip remained in. Then, just as slowly, he began pushing it back into 'Nica's ass. But no matter how snail-paced this movements were, they were still bringing a lot of pleasure to the both young teens, as their moans resounded through the empty classroom...

Even if he had lasted for quite long, considering that this was his first time having real sex, Harry still came first, shooting his load into her incredible ass. And not wanting to leave Draconica without an orgasm of her own, especially since she seemed to be so close, he kept going, despite his body protesting against that. And those several thrusts that he did were enough to bring the blond witch over the edge.

Harry, having pulled out of her, did a step back, before falling onto a chair there, while pulling 'Nica into sitting in his lap. The blond girl shifted into sitting sideways to get more comfortable, before snuggling into his chest with a content sigh.

"Hold me please, Harry." She asked, and the young Potter complied, wrapping his arms around her.

* * *

Draconica wasn't sure for how long they've been like this – she just felt so comfortable in Harry's lap and in his arms – but she was quite sure that it was about time they headed back to their houses' common rooms, unless they wanted to be punished for being out there after the curfew. Discretely pulling her wand from the top part of the robes (which still were on her), the blond witch cast a quick _**Tempus**_ charm, which confirmed it: they had only about twenty minutes left.

"Mm... Harry." She said quietly, while turning to look into his eyes, which he just opened due to her stirring. "I think we should part now, it's almost time for the curfew." He made a sound of not being happy to let her go – for some reason she just felt so right in his arms; that is not to say that he didn't enjoy cuddling with Katie, it just didn't feel the same...

He too could tell that it was rather late now, so, grudgingly, he let 'Nica out of his embrace and, after using a cleaning charm to remove the results of their very recent activities from his body, put his boxers and his pants back on. Meanwhile, Draconica too was getting dressed. For a brief moment she considered doing another naughty thing and gift Harry with her panties, but she quickly decided against it as she didn't want to get him into trouble... Still, she didn't put them on, putting them into her robes' pocket instead. And giving him a peck on his cheek – he was still there, too caught in the show she had unintentionally put on for him – she undid the locking charms on the door and left the classroom, while he was still catching up with the reality...

* * *

That's all, folks!  
Leave me a **review**.


	42. Breaking up

Here's the newest chapter for the "_**Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord**_", enjoy!

*** Review response**:  
**Naginator**, contract will be canceled, though Harry will have nothing to do with that.  
**obsessivegirl73**, **Penny is wise**, **Reishin Amara**, **The Swordslinger**, **joseph33759**, **Orchamus**,** JPElles**, **Awsomeness7**, **twilightnemo**, **god of all**, **ElementalMaster16**, **Grimjowx**, **ManlyMonk**, **cdog21**, **Zarosian Chaos**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
**Penseln**, hmm... read and see. ^_^  
**Super-Saiyan-3-Vegeta**, officially - during the Yule ball. unofficially... possibly before Christmas break ends. Not sure there.  
**Reccaff**, as I said, that possibility of another girl being added will only be discussed. You can have your imagination fill in any of the girls you want, it won't affect the story, 'cause it ends as just Harry/Draconica with a 'free spot'.  
**raw666**, **.owered**, look at the AN.  
**SimFlyer**, you'll to wait for the fourth year for those.  
**jafr86**, this story is planned to end a little after the end of the fourth year. How many chapters? Don't really know; likely about 20-25.  
**Akuma-Heika**, hopefully I'm not as rusty as I appear to be from your comment... Let's see what you will say about this chapter's one.

*** Review response to the 'improper' version of this chapter:** Damn, folks, my dinner got burned from your flames =)

*** Warning**: This chapter contains a reference to extreme violence.

* * *

*** Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "_**Harry Potter**_" and its characters in any shape or form.

"human speech"  
"_wraith speech_"  
'_human thoughts_'  
"**powered speech / true prophecies by the seer**"  
"_**spells / parseltongue**_"

* * *

_This chapter is not beta-read yet._

* * *

**chapter 42: Breaking up**

Even though with the occlumency skills she possessed, Draconica could hide her still flushed face well – her mind was being naughty and kept replaying her latest encounter with her desired one – the young witch couldn't hide the fact that she was somewhat sore down there. Even if her robes were a great help there, a keen eye still could see that she was walking a bit 'funny'.

And it just so happened that she had a friend with such an eye: Daphne saw that she had done something naughty as soon as 'Nica returned to the Slytherin common room. And where was Daphne, Tracey and Astoria were there as well... At least the trio of witches had the decency not to 'interrogate' her in the common and led her to Daphne's room first.

"So? How was it?" The Greengrass heiress asked, like often, being rather blunt and to a point. Draconica, who allowed her mask to slip, blushed with quite a shade of red. The other three girls read this perfectly well: their friend had enjoyed her experience. And now they wanted details... The blond witch glanced at Astoria, who was sitting behind her sister. And much to older witch's annoyance, 'Tori was propping her hands against her shoulders and had her head resting on top of her sister's. Almost like reading her friend's mind, Daphne shook her head. "Do you really think that it's possible to keep something from this little firecracker?" She asked rhetorically, while awkwardly ruffling her younger sister's hair.

"Mhmm..." Draconica breathed out: with how energetic Astoria was, it was really hard to keep things she wanted to know from her. Still, the blond witch wasn't sure that letting the eleven years old girl listen to them discussing sex (and not a normal one at that, but anal) was a good idea. Too bad, her friends weren't giving her a way out:

"So, tell us, how did your little secret meeting with the boy-wonder go?" Tracey prodded. "And we want all of the details." Draconica sighed, but began her tale...

**~/ *** \~**

Meanwhile, Harry was standing just a corner away from where the entrance to the Gryffindor common room was. By now he finally understood all of the implications of what he had done with 'Nica, and now he was frantically thinking of a way to save his ass from the vixens' wrath – there was no way in the Hell that Alicia and Angelina wouldn't tear him apart for him cheating on Katie...

Unfortunately, his mind, mellowed out by the pleasures he had experienced, refused to come up with anything even remotely able to save his sorry ass from the painful torture the girls will undoubtedly put him through. And with the time of curfew approaching inescapably, Harry had no other option but to face his doom. So, after a quick prayer to whatever deity was willing to listen to him – a prayer that there will be enough left from him to bury him properly – he approached the portrait of the 'Fat lady' and naming the password, entered the common room.

Surprisingly enough, Katie wasn't waiting for him in the portrait hole with a frying pan or something similarly heavy in her hands. Not that the brown-haired girl wasn't waiting for him: not a minute after he returned to the common room, the vixen 'appeared' next to him, looking at him pointedly.

While his occlumency skills were enough for him not to grin like an idiot, Harry was still unable to conceal the fact that he had gotten laid, not from his girlfriend at least. Good thing, Katie wasn't going to publicly tear him a new one. Not that she wouldn't do that in private... So, when the witch nodded him to follow her into a quiet corner of the common room, the young Potter just sighed and resigned to his fate. And just as they had arrived to that corner, Katie pushed him roughly against the wall, while glaring at him. Harry, though, didn't fight it as he knew he deserved nothing less for what he had done.

"It was her, wasn't it?" The vixen asked. Even though she didn't name Draconica, the green-eyed wizard had no doubt that his girlfriend was talking about the Slytherin witch... Taking a deep breath, he just nodded: there was no point in trying to lie there – it would only make the things worse for him in the end. "Bastard!" Katie hissed, before slapping him hard, not that he was going to even attempt to defend himself... Then she just turned around and walked away, leaving Harry standing where he was.

'_That went better than I expected..._' He thought, really hoping that he will survive the next day, when Angelina and Alicia will learn about his infidelity. Too bad, it didn't look like he will be living even that long: apparently, the two vixens in question saw Katie disappearing into the dorms...

**~/ *** \~**

Opening his eyes, Harry found himself looking at the white ceiling which unmistakeably belonged to the hospital wing. The strong smell of antiseptics was another reason why he was sure that at the moment he was in the tender care of madam Pomfrey... At least he didn't need to try and recall the reason why he was there: his own stupidity, weak will and hormones were to blame. And Alicia's and Angelina's good wand work.

Still, the young Potter couldn't exactly remember what the girls had done to him, but the dull ache in his both arms – whole arms – suggested that it was really very very far form anything that could be called pleasant... His further self-inspection was interrupted by the arrival of the Hogwarts nurse.

"Mr. Potter, you're awake?" The witch exclaimed. "Thanks Merlin! You gave us quite a scare when you were unconscious for almost three days." So, today was Wednesday, Harry concluded. Not good: Snape would not be pleased with him skipping Potions, unconscious or not. "Now, can you tell us what you did for your housemates to do that to you? I had to fix at least twenty fractures in your right arm alone. And then there was that nasty concussion of the brain. You're lucky you're thick-sculled, Mr. Potter, or I might have had to make you a resident of my ward for the next month."

'_Note to self: never ever anger the vixens again. Might not survive it for the second time._' The young Potter thought. "Hm... I broke a promise I made to them." Yes, this was generic enough for madam Pomfrey (or those whom she will tell this) not to uncover the real reason without extra sources of information. The medi-witch looked at him for several long seconds, before deciding not to dig more information out of the teen.

"In that case I will recommend you to keep your promises next time." Harry just nodded. Meanwhile, madam Pomfrey continued: "Now that you've woken up, I think I can release you as soon as I'm sure that you've healed properly." So in a day or two, the green-eyed wizard thought to himself, recalling his previous visits to the hospital wing. Oh well, since he didn't have to go to classes during this time, he had his chance to catch up with his homework in the meantime... Thankfully, someone very kind, likely Hermione, left him the notes about what he had to do.

Harry's guess about Snape turned out to be a correct one, when he read the notes about homework he needed to do. Not only he had to write a feet of parchment about a poison antidote they had been working in the class this past Monday, but he personally had to write another two feet of parchment about skelegro potion just for missing a class... Well, the Potions master was never fare, when it came to him, so the young Potter with a heavy sign began writing, doing his best to ignore the ache in his hand...

**~/ *** \~**

When Harry was finally released from the Hospital wing – and it happened in the early Thursday afternoon – the green-eyed wizard first headed to the library to return the books the house elves had retrieved from there for him: the standard textbooks he owned had not nearly enough information about the skelegro potion. And since his way there passed near the place where the hourglasses that showed house points were, he stopped there as well.

Judging by the amount of points house Gryffindor had left, Alicia and Angelina had lost at least one hundred and fifty each. Though, most likely, that was not the only punishment they had received: rightful or not, their vengeance for what he did to Katie was far too violent, according to the Hogwarts rules...

* * *

The first thing Harry saw when he finally returned to the Gryffindor common room were the glared Alicia and Angelina were sending him. If the looks could kill, he be disintegrated on spot so well that even atoms wouldn't be left from him. Surprisingly enough, Katie didn't appear to be as angry with him as the other two vixens were. Still, with the way she was looking at him, the young Potter knew that approaching his ex-girlfriend right now would be a direct ticket back to the hospital wing. Something he'd rather avoid.

At very least, though, it didn't look like the reason for his (rather violent) break up with Katie became a public knowledge, and the young Potter was very grateful for that. He had enough problems without entire house, if not entire school, ostracizing him for that mistake. He now felt bad about it without that.

Sighing again, Harry headed to the table where Hermione and Neville were working on their History of Magic essays. And surely they wanted to know why he was in the hospital wing for the last four days. The green-eyed wizard gave them the same explanation he had given to madam Pomfrey. The Longbottom heir seemed to buy it, but Hermione, being her usual intelligent and observant self, could tell that there was more to this than Harry was willing to share with them. But since it was his private problem, she didn't question him about this further and, instead, gave him some basic advices about how he could salvage his friendship with the Gryffindor vixens... The young Potter had listened to her, even if he was pretty sure that none of those will work with how deeply he had hurt Katie.

**~/ *** \~**

The next week was very hard for Harry as the vixen trio was almost constantly sending him death glares whenever they were in the same room. It was so bad that he didn't even dare approaching them to try and beg for their forgiveness, which he wasn't likely to receive anyway. Neither from Katie, whom he had betrayed in the worst manner, nor from Alicia and Angelina, who now were spending every other night for the rest of the school year in detentions with professor McGonnagal.

Still, somewhere deep inside the young Potter hoped beyond hope that the things will look up for him soon and he will at least be able to tell the girls that he was sorry...

It all might have not been as painful for the green-eyed wizard if he'd have gotten something besides memories from that night, but, alas, that wasn't the case: Draconica was still as cold and distant as she was in the past, in no way giving away that there had been something between them...

* * *

Unfortunately, it looked like the vixens could hold grudge for the longest time, as only three weeks after _that_ night they began to cool down. Still, for some reason, Harry had problem finding it in himself to approach them. The basilisk he had faced in the Chamber of Secrets the previous year now seemed to be far less scary than the trio of Gryffindor vixens. Especially when they all sat together...

Eventually, though, the young Potter managed to catch the moment when Katie was alone in the common room. While he felt that he was in fault with Alicia and Angelina as well, his ex-girlfriend was the one whom he had hurt the most, and also she was the only one whom he had hurt directly, so he felt that she should be the one for whose he must beg forgiveness first... So, mustering up his Gryffindor courage (which didn't want to be mustered at all as his Slytherin side wanted to live), he carefully approached the brown-haired witch.

"What do you want, Potter?" She asked in a tone as cold as the depth of space when she saw him. "I don't want anything to do with a bastard that you are." She hissed, while almost visible aura of deep hatred flared around her. Harry sighed deeply, while hanging his head, but didn't leave.

"Katie,.." He did his best to ignore the death glare the girl sent him: he really didn't deserve to call her by her name anymore, but addressing her in any other way didn't seem right either. "I know that what I have done to you is unforgivable and that there is nothing that I can do to win back your indulgence... Yet I still beg for your forgiveness." The vixen didn't reply anything and just continued glaring at him. "I know that there is nothing that can repair our relationship, nor I would be worth of that, not anymore, but you at least give me one more chance as your friend?" The young Potter asked after a pause. He was met with a silence that was even worse than any outright denial of his request would be... But after several seconds that to Harry were like an eternity, Katie replied:

"Guess, I can give you one more chance to be my friend, Potter." She said. "But you owe me a lot for this." The green-eyed wizard bowed.

"You're the greatest person ever, Katie. I don't deserve you." He said.

"No, you don't." The vixen told him. "But I'll give you this one chance anyway." Harry bowed to her again. And thanking her one more time, he walked away, feeling very relieved that somehow he managed to salvage at least his friendship with Katie... Absentmindedly, he noted that the feeling of relief he felt at the moment would be worth a very powerful patronus. Maybe even a corporeal one...

* * *

Even though he had somewhat repaired his friendship with ex-girlfriend, Harry still needed to say sorry to the other two vixens – after all, he was the reason for their detentions, even if indirectly. And Alicia and Angelina were far less forgiving – the young Potter had to beg to Katie so that she will ask her friends not to curse him into the next year when he would approach them to ask for their forgiveness.

In the end though, after he went to professor McGonnagal and asked her to cancel at least some of the detentions she had given to the two older vixens (and it took him a lot of persuasion and begging to make the transfiguration professor agree to change her mind about those punishments), the girls in question finally gave in and more or less forgave him for hurting Katie. Of course, he still had to 'sponsor' their next trip to Hogsmeade, for all three of them, for this kindness of theirs...

**~/ *** \~**

Sirius Black was breathing hard as he, in his animagus form, finally climbed onto the stony passage between the mountains, the passage that led into the valley where the Hogsmeade village was. Damn, he was so weak... And so hungry: he hadn't eaten to satiety ever since he had been thrown into Azkaban a little more that twelve years ago... But he had a mission – he had to capture the real traitor, the one who really betrayed the Potters to Voldemort – and nothing in the world was going to stop him. Not hunger, not auror patrols or dementors, not even Magic itself!

Finding himself a secure cave, the only Azkaban escapee in history reverted to his human form, which looked just as dirty and skinny as his beast one, and checked the wand he had stolen from some random wizard when he was traveling through the southern Scotland. Of course, this wand was far from an ideal match for him, but, he supposed, it was good enough for him to stun that traitorous rat and make him revert to his human form... Hopefully, if DMLE 'captured' live Peter Pettigrew, they might actually call off the 'kill on sight' order he was given upon his escape from the infamous Azkaban prison.

And then he will finally get a proper trial, where, of course, it will be discovered that he was innocent. And so he will be able to see his godson once again... He hoped that Harry was a good-looking marauder in training like his father was at his age. Or, maybe, Harry was a clever and charismatic as his mother was?

Sirius shook his head. He had no time for those fantasies at the moment: he was on a mission to expose Peter Pettigrew as the real traitor to the world and he needed to concentrate on his task... But before that, he had to east something, or he might die from hunger before he will have a chance to catch that _rat_... So, turning back into his animagus form, Sirius Black continued on his way to Hogsmeade in hopes of stealing something eatable from some house there...

* * *

That's all, folks!  
Leave me a **review**.


	43. Grimm meeting

Here's the newest chapter for the "_**Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord**_", enjoy!

*** Review response**:  
**Akuma-Heika**, **god of all**, **Zarosian Chaos**, **DoctorWho41**, **AlsoKnownAsMatt**, **Nanashi113**, **JPElles**, **fragglemaster**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
**Master Procrastinator**, **Key to Chaos**, **The Sinful**, **Blood Brandy**, **Evil-Overlord**, **Follower38**, **Zeetthegreat**, **Shinku Ryuuga**, **Korraganitar the NightShadow**, **Befread**, heh, guys, I know, the 'improper' version's only fault was it's un-realisticness, but the problem with it was that I didn't really like the chapter myself. Not that the original edition of the 'proper' version was much better... Anyway, after some thinking I decided that the lemon from the 'improper' version can be reused. If anybody still has it somewhere (browser cash?), can you, please, send it back to me? It should fit into 8k characters of the PM. I'll be very grateful.  
**Shadow's Blades**, **Penseln**, I wouldn't say that Katie was too harsh in the 'proper' version. Yes, she was holding grudge for quite some time, but she wasn't going out of her way to make his life hell. Angelina and Alicia... yeah, I went a bit overboard with the violence coming form them. But that is kinda fixed now.  
**Hoffindor**, sorry, not a citrus season out there. =) There might be one in about 3-5 chapters, though.  
**random fanfic reader**, I'm not even sure what to say here... Thanks for the review? Same goes to **N Flamel**.  
**inuboy86**, it will happen indirectly anyway. But we all should stop being hormonal teenagers and remember that polygamy is not really accepted in the world.  
**OverPowered** (not sure what goes on over here, but the built-in editor eats up first half of your correct penname. Sorry, man), correction: 20 in right arm alone. Other broken bones are only indirectly implied. But, yeah, that is sure as hell is painful.

**Author's Note:** Do note that I made another revision of the 42nd chapter. Now the violence in it is tuned to the acceptable levels.

* * *

*** Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "_**Harry Potter**_" and its characters in any shape or form.

"human speech"  
"_wraith speech_"  
'_human thoughts_'  
"**powered speech / true prophecies by the seer**"  
"_**spells / parseltongue**_"

* * *

_This chapter is not beta-read yet._

* * *

**chapter 43: Grimm meeting**

Harry Potter wasn't the only one who was feeling bad about that hour of intimacy he spent with Draconica. The blond witch herself, once she had heard what had happened to the object of her affection because of that, began regretting giving in to her urges... Of course, being a Slytherin she just couldn't show this weakness of hers to others, so only those really close to her knew that she was feeling awful about what she had done: after all, she might have as well destroyed his (and not only his, actually) life.

And she just couldn't find it in herself to approach the young Potter to tell him that for whatever it was worth, she was sorry... Instead, she actually became distant from him once again, which only made it worse for him. Yet, from what Draconica could observe, while Harry was very angry with her, it wasn't all over between them because of what had happened, even if it was entirely her fault. And this was making the blond witch feel a little better, yet so much worse as she felt that she didn't deserve him, not anymore...

Eventually, though, her friends – Daphne, Tracey and even Astoria – made it clear to her that, even if it meant that she'll have to overcome herself, she really should show it to the young lord Potter that she cared about what had happened to him if she wanted to save whatever was left from their 'relationship'.

* * *

It still took Draconica a couple of days after that to finally approach Harry, which happened on Friday afternoon, several hours before their Astronomy lesson. At this time the green-eyed wizard was doing some research in the library, and the Malfoy heiress used this to her advantage as her talk with him absolutely most definitely must be a private one.

"Harry?" She said as she 'cornered' the young Potter in a path between two huge bookshelves. He, of course, looked up from the back of the tome he had in his hands and frowned when he saw that it was her. The blond witch could see that she wasn't exactly welcomed by him at the moment, but she didn't let it stop her.

"What?" Harry asked, while looking pointedly at the girl, trying to make it clear to her that he was pretty angry with her at the moment. And while he could see that she got the message, she didn't leave.

"Harry... I know that the things didn't turn out as well as I have hoped, and you were hurt so much by my impulsiveness and inability to completely control my own urges, but... For all that it is worth, I'm sorry." The blond witch said quietly. "Please, don't hate me." She pleaded, making the young Potter sigh deeply.

"Listen, Draconica.. You're right there, and that night had cost me greatly, and, to be honest, I'm not sure if it will ever be the same between us... And as much as I want to hate you so much for what you've caused and blame you for what had happened, I can't: I myself is at fault there as much as you are... But, still, for now, I'm really very angry with you." He said, while looking into her eyes... His words, though, had an effect that he didn't expect:

"Thank you!" Instead of backing away and leaving, the Malfoy girl tried to hug him. He didn't let her do that, stopping her with his outstretched hand, causing the blond witch to cock her head to the side and pout at him cutely.

"No, don't. Not now, you've lost your right for things like this for now." Draconica sighed, stepping away from him, suddenly appearing so small and defenseless. A moment later, though, she her her usual cold and slightly aloof mask back on.

"Still, I thank you for your kindness, Harry." Were her words, before she walked away, leaving the green-eyed wizard in question alone with the books he was browsing for whatever information he needed...

**~/ *** \~**

Sunday that week was the second Hogsmeade weekend of this school year. And also it was the day when the trio of Gryffindor vixens planned to make Harry sponsor their shopping as the payment for his misdeeds – something that the young Potter had agreed to in hopes to salvage at least some of their friendship...

Like always, he woke up early that day, and like always, once he had finished with his morning rituals, he went down to the common room to do some morning reading. He really hoped that this tome on the Ancient Runes might contain some information, even if just as references, that will help him deal with Voldemort, when the dark wizards finally regains his body – the young wizard had no doubts about this happening eventually, and he wanted to be ready for this, when it happens: no matter what Dumbledore was saying about Ronald being the chosen one, Harry knew that he would be near the very top of Voldemort's to-kill list... The darker thoughts aside, the tome he had picked proved to be quite an interesting reading: not only it contained information about some dialects of the runic languages they were taught in the class, but some interesting techniques for rune-carving were also presented there...

At about half past nine in morning, when Harry himself was about to head to the Great hall for some breakfast, the youngest of the Weasley sons decided that it was time for him to wake up and go eat. What had attracted the green-eyed wizard's attention, though, was Scabbers, Ron's rat. Normally the lazy rodent spent its days up there in the dorm, but today its owner decided that it should go to Hogsmeade with him – something the rat didn't appear to like very much, as it was trying to do its best to escape Ron and run back to the dorms.

Chuckling at the antics of the rat, the young Potter went upstairs himself to put the tome he was reading before now into his trunk, before heading down to Great hall – it really was time for him to have some breakfast if he didn't want to anger the vixens by making them wait for him.

**~/ *** \~**

As it turned out, Harry had greatly underestimated the enthusiasm of the Gryffindor chasers when it came to shopping. Especially when they weren't the ones who were paying. The young Potter was actually beginning to have second thoughts about letting the girls spend his (in this case, actually hard-earned in the battle with the basilisk) galleons, even if it meant that he'll have to go through another round of being the target their vengeance.

Thankfully, the vixens' shopping spree was interrupted by the clock on the local prefecture tower striking one: the girls decided that it was time for them go and grab some lunch. Harry, of course, was paying for the expenses. So, chaser the trio proceeded to drag the young lord Potter (who was very thankful to inventor of the shrinking charm, as, otherwise, he would be looking like a mule with all of the girls' packages he had to carry) to the 'Three broomsticks'...

* * *

Just as the quartet settled down at one of the tables in the pub – it was actually quite surprising that they managed to get it, considering how busy the pub was during the 'Hogsmeade weekends' of the Hogwarts students – when a brown-haired witch in official robes, approached Harry.

"Mr. Potter? Can I have a minute of your time?" Ignoring the glares all three of the girls were giving him, Harry nodded.

"Of course, Ms. Summers. I take it Ms. Bridget has something really important for me? So far she was just sending me owls with the reports on her progress." Ms. Summers nodded, but, despite the invitation to seat at an empty chair at the table, remained standing.

"Who's this?" Angelina asked Harry, while alternatively glaring at him and at the older witch. The other two vixens were doing the same, but neither the young Potter, nor Ms. Summers didn't seem to be affected by this.

"This is miss Summers, my barrister's assistant." The only wizard at the table replied, before turning his attention back to the older witch. "So, what does Ms. Bridget have for me? If it's nothing too personal, you can talk it out aloud." The witch nodded and detached some documents from her clipboard (apparently, the entire firm and not just Violet were using this muggle invention).

"Very well." She said. "First of all, Ms. Bridget has finished compiling the documents for Regulus' case and, if nothing extraordinary happens during Wizengamot's next session, it will be presented there by Herr Schmidt this next Tuesday. Ms. Bridget is quite sure that your proposal about awarding Regulus Arcturus Black an order of Merlin postmortem will be approved." Harry nodded as he took the copy of the document. While it took Violet quite some time to compile it, he had no doubt that it was done as good as it was possible.

"And what about Sirius Black? It has been more than four months since I asked for his trial record. Violet has owled me that she had troubles finding it, but that was at the end of October." The young lord Potter asked.

"Apparently, Mr. Black either wasn't given a trial at all, or this particular record wasn't filed into the archives, as Ms. Bridget could not find it in there. She has forwarded this to madam Bones, to see if she as the head of the DMLE can do something about this." The green-eyed wizard nodded: knowing firsthand how corrupt the Ministry was, he wouldn't be too surprised if they decided to throw someone into Azkaban without a trial if this suited them.

"Very well. And, finally, is there some progress with collecting information about my _greatest_ target?" Harry asked cryptically, not wanting the vixens to know that he and his barrister were working on compiling a case against Dumbledore. And while the Gryffindor chasers didn't really get what he was asking, Ms. Summers did – Violet must have had briefed her about what she was doing for him.

"Yes, there is something new." Ms. Summers said, before handing Harry a rather thick pile of documents. "This is what she has at the moment." The young Potter nodded.

"Thank you. Are the rates still the same?" He asked and, upon the older witch's nod, he handed her ten galleons.

"Thank you, Mr. Potter." She said, accepting the money. "Have a nice day." And, after giving him a light bow, she walked away – it was actually considered a bad tone to apparate either to or from inside the house, unless it was the Ministry building or Gringotts bank or a similar public place.

"Harry, you're hiring 'Carter, Bridget & Ashford' as your barristers?" Katie asked, a bit surprised: she had heard some hearsay about this firm and knew that they weren't cheap. The green-eyed wizard just shrugged.

"Yeah, and they're doing their job well." He said in a tone that made it rather clear to the girls that he was not up to the talks about law or politics at the moment... Plus they all were hungry at the moment and there were delicious lunches in front of them, so the talks (about anything) could wait for now.

**~/ *** \~**

It was an early afternoon, and Sirius Black, in his animagus form of course, was walking around the Hogsmeade village, looking for his target. He really hoped that _the rat_ would be here today for him to capture it. Outing the traitor was the most important thing to the Azkaban escapee as not only this will give him a chance to regain his freedom, but it will also protect his godson from the disguised Death Eater.

Speaking of his godson... Sirius had seen Harry being dragged around the village's shops by three witches, who appeared to have him wrapped around their fingers. Not that Sirius felt bad for him about this: he himself wouldn't mind being in the company of three young nubile and sexy as hell beauties...

But cheering for his godson for living his dream could wait, as he had more important things to do at the moment: namely, he had to find that Weasley kid – Ronald, he though, was his name – to get _the rat_ from him. And that would not be an easy task. Especially with the crap that Dumbledore had pulled out of his old wrinkly arse this summer. Honestly, was the wizarding world going more crazy with each year?

No, sure, Sirius knew he was not very sane, especially after all those years he had spent in the company of dementors, but it seemed to him that Dumbledore was completely off his beam: what was it with him suddenly announcing the Weasley kid as the second coming of Merlin? Even if he was right about his, why was he telling everyone this now and not when the darker elements were dealt with? Anyway, Dumbledore's stupidity was not what he should be concentrating on either, so Sirius continued walking around the village, trying to catch the reek of that traitorous rat that Peter Pettigrew was.

* * *

Thankfully, even his little vacation at the island of Azkaban hadn't taken away the natural gifts of his animagus form, so it didn't take Sirius too much time to finally sniff his target's trail. Finding the appropriate time and place for the attack was much harder: he just couldn't attack the rat when there were too many people around – he might not be able to leave that place alive in this case... And he still had so many things to do before dying. Preferably from sex overdose while being surrounded by a horde of lovely veela...

Anyway, soon his patience was rewarded, and Ronald Weasley, along with two boy of about his age, whom Sirius didn't know, went to see Mooney's old hiding place, which also happened to be the infamous Shrieking Shack.

* * *

"Why is everyone afraid of this old building?" Ron asked no one in particular. "I'm sure that the ghosts that inhabit it are just little pussies that I'll have no troubles in scarring off." Suddenly he felt Scabbers in his chest-pocket trying to wring his way to freedom, which was a very unusual behavior for the normally extremely lazy rat. "What's wrong, Scabbers?" The youngest Weasley male asked his pet. Which, of course, didn't answer.

The answer, though, came a minute later in the form of a bear-sized black dog with slightly glowing yellow eyes. And this dog was attacking him... Before Ron could even think about trying to reach for his wand, the Grimm-like dog jumped on him, sending him onto the ground. Then this dog opened its mouth, filled with sharp teeth and tried to bite his heart off (at least Ron thought it to be like that, as he had fainted a moment later). The dog, though, went specifically after the contents of his chest pocket – namely, after Scabbers – but the rat managed to escape his pocket before the dog's maw closed around him.

Spitting out the awfully-tasting piece of cloth, the dog ran after the escaping rat with loud barking, while completely losing all of its interest in the young teens... Seeing that the danger has passed for the moment, Ron's two friends picked him up and hurried back to the castle and the hospital wing there (even if the worst that the Weasley kid got was a scare and a couple of bruises from being thrown onto the hard ground).

**~/ *** \~**

While this Hogsmeade visit cost him quite a lot – the girls sure weren't going easy on his wallet – Harry still thought that it was worse the money he has spent: after all it now looked like his relationship with the vixen was more or less repaired. Hopefully, to the level it was at when he had just joined the Gryffindor quidditch team.

His train thoughts was interrupted interrupted, though, when the incredibly great chosen one of the wizarding Britain began telling his version of his encounter with the big wild dog. Something that Harry knew was not true as he (and the vixens with whom he was) had seen the whole thing from afar. And he was sure as hell that there was no heroic fight in which Ron managed to scare off a great beast...

But after a moment of thinking he decided that butting in would not be worth it, so he just tuned the 'story' off and returned to his light reading and thinking about the ways to further repair his friendship with the Gryffindor chasers... Though, this reminded him that he was yet to look through the documents the Violet had sent him. But, on the second thought... It was too late tonight for something this serious and he just didn't feel like it at the moment, so he decided to postpone dealing with those till tomorrow...

* * *

That's all, folks!  
Leave me a **review**.


	44. Attacked tower

Here's the newest chapter for the "_**Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord**_", enjoy!

*** Review response**:  
**nobother**, **reven228**, **PassingDays**, **jafr86**, **magical fan18**, **obsessivegirl73**, **Penny is wise**, **JPElles**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
**The Swordslinger**, somehow, I still got what you wanted to say, despite your constant jumping to "not in a perverted way" comments, and, anyway, at least for Katie, I already have such a scene planned. For the other vixens - not yet, but I will try to think something up.  
**noshadowone**, no drawing =) And I did remove quartering.  
**Naginator**, no, they are not. (**Grimjowx**, this goes for you as well) So, expect something involving them soon.  
**ElementalMaster16**, surprisingly enough, there is nothing romantic going on between Harry and Violet. Though, if the idea that something must happen between them becomes popular, I MIGHT make a spinoff for this pairing. Just do remember that she's (23) ten years older than him (13).

* * *

*** Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "_**Harry Potter**_" and its characters in any shape or form.

"human speech"  
"_wraith speech_"  
'_human thoughts_'  
"**powered speech / true prophecies by the seer**"  
"_**spells / parseltongue**_"

* * *

_This chapter is not beta-read yet._

* * *

**chapter 44: Attacked tower**

**_Are all Blacks dark?_**

_In a shocking twist of events, during the Wizengamot session yesterday, the proxy for the Noble house Potter presented documents that stated that Regulus Black, previously thought to be a hardcore Death Eater, actually worked against You-know-Who and was killed by him for this very reason._

_The documents presented by Herr Schmidt contained the reconstruction of the events that had happened at the end of the War. It appears that Regulus Black, who managed to integrate himself into the Inner circle of the Death Eaters, was there to find a way to bring You-know-Who down and protect the rightful Ministry and the citizens of the Magical Britain._

_Regulus Black was in for a long wait for the right time to strike, during which he was forced to commit unspeakable atrocities not to lose his cover, but a couple of month before the end of the War he finally got his chance to strike. He managed to steal and destroy some of the powerful artifacts that the Dark Lord had collected, thus weakening him and his followers. Of course, this instantly made him a traitor to the Dark side, to which he never truly belonged, and You-know-Who personally went to execute him. The last bit was know for the longest time, though it was wrongly believed that Regulus' failings to please the Dark Lord were the reason for his death._

_After he finished reading the documents, Herr Schmidt proposed to award Regulus Arcturus Black the Order of Merlin, First class, which was seconded by the Chief warlock Albus Dumbledore, who then gave a long speech about how the light was strong in the hearts of the young of the wizarding world even in those dark times. The voting that followed was almost unanimous and Regulus Black was awarded the Order of Merlin he truly deserved post mortem._

_While this story has a happy ending of the justice restored, we can't help but ask this question: how many other heroes of the War are still unknown? How many of them are yet to be recognized for their heroics? We, at the editorial office of the 'Daily Prophet', hope that this will not be last time the heroics of wizards and witches are brought to the light._

_For more information about You-know-Who and his Death Eaters, read the article on the page 13. For more information about Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, read the article on the page 15. For more information about Regulus Arcturus Black, read the article on the page 21._

* * *

Sirius Black lowered the newspaper he had – in his anumagus form – stolen from the vendor in Hogsmeade. It looked like his little brother wasn't as bad as he or everyone else at the Order of the Phoenix believed him to be. Shaking his head, the only Azkaban escapee in the history vowed to greatly thank Harry, when he will finally meet him as a man and not just a big black dog, for giving him his brother back...

But right now there were things more important to Sirius. Like dealing with Peter Pettigrew – _the rat_ managed to escape him three day ago and now was on the loose. And, knowing that his disguise of a rat was compromised, Peter must be desperate at the moment, which made him quite dangerous to people around him... On the second thought, maybe, he should wait for a bit to let him calm down, Sirius thought – if the real traitor knew that he was really hunted, he might just start killing people left and right in a desperate attempt to survive. And would be a truly catastrophic turn of events. Yes, the grimm animagis decided, he should wait for some time before resuming his rat hunt. Hopefully, by then Peter will come back to the Weasley kid, or choose some other place to hide, instead of running around...

Meanwhile, though, Sirius needed to find himself something to eat as raiding the houses in Hogsmeade all the time was not a very good idea. Maybe he should make use of his Marauder skills and sneak into Hogwarts to get some food form the kitchens? No, that would not be a good idea either, as the house elves there likely were instructed to incapacitate him, should he show up. This left Sirius with the only option of hunting for food in the surrounding forests...

**~/ *** \~**

While Sirius Black was thinking about his late brother Regulus, who turned out to be a hero, and was planning his capture, Peter Pettigrew was hiding in Hogwarts castle, thinking about what to do next. Since he was absolutely sure that Black was really after him on that Sunday, the rat-like man knew that he couldn't move around as freely as before, and this meant that he needed a safe place... While it was relatively safe here, with the real rats, there was always a danger of some cat deciding to make him its meal, or some upper years, who would use him as a target for their magical experiments... No, he needed a safer place for himself.

Maybe he should return to that Weasley boy who was taking care of him for the last several years? Since that kid was proclaimed to be the chosen one by Dumbledore, everyone will go out of their way to keep the boy safe from Black, and this protection will be extended to him as well, if continues to play his role of Weasley's pet rat... Though, in this case, Peter decided, he needed to find a way to avoid being with the kid anywhere, where Black could attack them.

Or he could just return to the tower and kill the 'savior' – both of the boys, just in case – before fleeing to Albania, where, according to the rumors, the spirit of Voldemort was. The later option, actually, seemed to be a better one, though Peter distantly remembered the Dark Lord telling his Death Eaters that the Potter child was his and only his to kill...

Still, he needed to choose something, as the idea of spending his time with the dirty castle rats didn't please Peter Pettigrew...

**~/ *** \~**

Meanwhile Harry was sitting on his bed in the Gryffindor dormitories, using its privacy – the wards he had put up around it were still there – to wrap some Christmas gifts for his classmates and friends... And that was where he was hit by a sudden idea. Horcruxes, essentially, were nothing more than containers that kept soul shards attached to this world, thus preventing their creator from passing on. On their own, unless they came in contact with some naïve fool, horcruxes could do nothing but exist. So, if all of the soul was contained somewhere securely, the one, whose soul it was, was for all purposes dead.

In other words, if he could find a way to seal away what was left from Voldemort's soul and ensure that the container will never release it back – either from being opened by someone, or just from breaking up from old age – then the Dark Lord will be essentially dead... The problem here, though, was in finding the container: there weren't any things in the world that could exist forever... Still, this idea was worth something in the eyes of the young Potter. At very least this was the first more or less plausible idea of how to get rid of Voldemort, without having to find and destroy his remaining horcruxes first.

Thinking on it further, the green-eyed wizard came to much harder to accomplish, but definitely a better one, should he succeed, idea: why not banish Voldemort's 'main' soul into an alternative dimension? Since _it_ will be out of this world, he wouldn't need to worry about the safety of a container as there will be none. Unfortunately, creating something as great as a tear in reality required a lot of preparation and an almost ridiculous amount of magical power – so much that it likely was out of the reach for Dumbledore or Voldemort without either consuming a great deal of boosters... So, unless he used some alternative way to power the rituals, he would never be able to accomplish something like this, which meant that, in the end, this idea was useless to him...

Still, unless he could come up with something better than sealing Voldemort's soul away within something, Harry decided that he should look more into this – likely, this will actually be his best shot as ending the Dark Lord.

Shaking his head to clear these thoughts so that he could concentrate on the gifts he was wrapping, Harry looked at his watch. Apparently, he had spent quite some time deeply immersed in his thoughts as it was almost seven in the evening. Meaning, it was dinner time already. Sighing, the dark-haired teen decided that he can finish wrapping the gifts after his meal, so, fixing his clothes to look presentable and checking the wards around his bed, he headed towards the Great hall.

**~/ *** \~**

Even though Sirius Black likely was the only one within a hundred of miles who could see through his animagus transformation, Peter decided against returning to the Gryffindor common room, while there were too many people there. After all, rats weren't very common as pets, and he definitely didn't look like a sleek decorative rat, so the chances were, he will be hit with some nasty spells before he could reach the safety of his 'owner'. Not that he planned anything good for the boy...

So, once he was sure that mostly everyone was down at the Great hall for their dinner, Peter Pettigrew proceeded towards the Gryffindor common room. And while he didn't meet anybody on his way there, he also couldn't get in without telling the Fat Lady the password. And as a rat he, obviously, couldn't do that: rats just don't speak. So he will have to transform back into his human form... Thankfully, the portrait that at the moment was preventing him from entering the Gryffindor common room, decided to take a nap and wouldn't see him if he did everything correctly... Once he was once again in his human form, Peter quietly approached the portrait.

"Lion's pride!" The presumed-dead wizard announced the password that he thought to be the current one. Unfortunately, he seemed to be mistaken here, as the passage to the Gryffindor common room didn't open for him. But failed attempt did wake the Fat Lady up from her nap.

"Sirius Black?" Still not completely awake painting asked. "I will not let you in." While it was handy for Peter that he wasn't recognized for who he really was, he still needed to get into the common room. So, if he couldn't do this the 'normal' way, he'll just use force... Pulling the butcher's knife he had stolen from the kitchen – he intended to use this to kill the boys, who, supposedly, would stand in his master's way, later – he stalked towards the portrait.

"You will let me in." He hissed, while raising his weapon threateningly. The Fat Lady, though, was going to fulfill her duties of the passage guardian, and so she once again refused to let him in... This caused Peter to become angry enough to try and stab her – thankfully she was fast enough to move to the nearby painting to hide there...

Having done several stabs and cuts on now empty portrait, the rat animagus tried to force it open, but he was really disappointed when he found a solid stone wall there, instead of a short passage to the Gryffindor common room he expected. And what was worse, he was almost out of the time as the first students were about to return from the Great hall at any moment now... Still, Peter was not stupid enough to give up his identity or cover by transforming back into the rat when someone could see him.

So, looking around, he found the painting where the Fat Lady – and she was the only painted human nearby – was hiding, and send her a death glare, which caused her to hide behind a boulder on the paining of African savanna. Using this moment wisely, Peter Pettigrew turned back into his animagus form and disappeared into a crack between stones of the wall, so, when the Fat Lady peaked out of her cover next time, she didn't see him anymore...

**~/ *** \~**

Even though Harry was rather quick to finish his meal, he wasn't the first one to leave the Gryffindor table at the Great hall, so, when he finally got to where the entrance to the common room was, there already were some people there making theories of what had happened to the Fat Lady's portrait. And the more students arrived there, the more, sometimes really ridiculous guesses, were made, while no one – not even he himself, like Harry later would admit – actually tried to find the Fat Lady to ask her what had happened...

Eventually, though, professor McGonnagal came to investigate the reason behind her 'cubs' unable to return to the common room. Unlike the students of her house, though, she started looking for the Fat Lady. And found her in just a couple of minutes, still hiding behind that boulder.

"What had happened, my lady?" The transfiguration professor asked.

"S-Sirius Black!" The painting replied in a shaky voice. "He... He tried to force his way into the dormitories... He had the previous password, and when... when I denied him entrance he pulled out a b-big knife and... he tried to make an entrance for himself... And..."

"Thank you, my lady." Professor McGonnagal cut her, seeing that it was hr for her to talk about this. "We will have Filch repair your portrait." The Scottish witch said, while adding in her thoughts: '_In the meantime we need someone to guard the entrance... But who will be willing to do the job?_'

* * *

As it turned out, it was much harder to find a temporary guardian for the Gryffindor room than anyone could have imagined: because of the rumors about Sirius Black spreading around the castle like a wildfire, pretty much every painting or statue refused to take the job... In the end, though, almost three hours later, someone brave enough to agree was found – sir Cadogan's portrait, that normally hung on the seventh floor near not far away from the Divination classroom, didn't refuse to take the role.

Unfortunately, the man was believed to be quite insane, and rightfully so, as not even ten minutes into his new job, and he already was making the students' lives hell by thinking up some extremely complicated passwords. Still, as there was no one else brave enough for the job, he remained as the temporary guardian of the Gryffindor common room...

**~/ *** \~**

While the students (hopefully) were off to their beds for the night, the day of the Hogwarts professors was continuing, thanks to the staff meeting that Dumbledore decided to call as soon as the attack on the Fat Lady was reported to him.

"Now, that all of you are here..." The ancient wizard said, while looking at the Hogwarts professors that had assembled in his office. "Let us discuss a very important subject." He paused for a moment, before continuing: "As it was shown to us today, Sirius Black is capable of infiltrating the castle and leaving it with as much as one witness, who only saw him because he used an outdated password. If not for this mistake of his, it not hard to imagine, what kind of a disaster could have happened... Something must be done to update our security and prevent the events like this from happening ever again." There was a murmur of agreement among the professors, and Dumbledore waited for several seconds for them to become quiet again, before continuing. "And since he was obviously after the chosen one, I believe that moving him into a private room somewhere away from the Gryffindor dormitories will make it safer for everyone."

Now there were more than some outcries against this, the most vocal ones coming from professor Snape, who bore no love for Ron (even though his hate for the redhead wasn't as strong as his hate for the Potter spawn) and, rather surprisingly, from professor Sprout, who was telling that singling someone out like this was not good for the morale of the house... Not wanting to listen to the professors arguing against his idea, the headmaster raised his hand, silently telling everyone to stop talking.

"Please, let me explain my reasoning for this decision." He said. "I know that separating young Ronald from his friends might not be the best idea at any other time, but as we're in the Black crisis... Moving him to a separate living quarters will let us put more powerful protections, those that wouldn't work on the area that hundreds of people should be able to access routinely. And by removing him from the Gryffindor dormitories for the time being, we will ensure the safety of the young Ronald's housemates as Black will have no reason to go there anymore." Dumbledore said, while pushing his magic into his eyes to send a powerful 'message' to the others that would compel them to agree with him... Of course, those proficient in mind arts could detect this 'message' and ignore it, but as it was already quite late in the night, most were just too tired to fight his mind magic off, and one by one the assembled professors began nodding in agreement with his plan...

* * *

That's all, folks!  
Leave me a **review**.


	45. Restored bonds

Here's the newest chapter for the "_**Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord**_", enjoy!

*** Review response**:  
**Naginator**, **vampirewithwolfeyes**, **ElementalMaster16**, **Zarosian Chaos**, **CaliDreamin**, **fragglemaster**, **Fred the Man**, **obsessivegirl73**, **cyber viper42**, **JPElles**, **xyzman**, **OverPowered**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
**The Swordslinger**, I'll come up with Harry's payback once I get to where Skeeter makes a personal appearance.  
**Penny is wise**, nope, he'll live. For now.  
**Impstar**, he will use it successfully (target petrified) at least once.  
**RE5 forever**, not sure. Likely around 70. Really depends on my inspiration, but the current school year will be stretched up to the chapter 50 at least.  
**Alexajke**, скорее сказывается то, что я пишу по главе в неделю - на самом деле не так уж просто, поскольку быстро вдохновение выдыхается... или будет лучше если я будут обновлять раз в месяц 12000-ыми главами? 3000 еженедельно, по-моему, все же, лучше.  
**The Sinful**, indeed, what the hell was I thinking when I typed that? Should have been "spawn" instead of "spouse". Thanks for noticing. | Fixed this error.  
**InTheYearOfTheCat**, really? I might have to start a poll on this, once the current one is finished.  
**Awsomeness7**, I did say that she was napping when Peter said the old password. She wasn't fully awake during that incident, and, like we all know, when you're scared, you see things not like they really are.

And thanks for **400 000 hits**, everyone!

*** Poll**: A new poll is published in my profile. The question of the day is "Should Sirius Black live?" with the following options: yes - I don't care - no. Do vote please.

* * *

*** Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "_**Harry Potter**_" and its characters in any shape or form.

"human speech"  
"_wraith speech_"  
'_human thoughts_'  
"**powered speech / true prophecies by the seer**"  
"_**spells / parseltongue**_"

* * *

_This chapter is not beta-read yet._

* * *

**chapter 45: Restored bonds**

Much like professor Sprout has predicted, Gryffindors didn't take it very well, when the next morning it was announced that Ron will moved to some private room for the additional protection. To many it felt like the headmaster valued the new 'chosen one' more than the entire house, but there was nothing they could do here, so, grudgingly, they accepted Dumbledore's decision...

Of course, the news about the youngest Weasley being moved to a private room didn't stay confined to Gryffindor common room, and by the end of breakfast next day entire school knew about this. Ravenclaws, like always, didn't care much about such un-academic matters, but still quite a few of them agreed that this was not a good thing for the headmaster to do... Unlike them, Hufflepuffs in their entirety thought that Dumbledore shouldn't have had singled Ron out so much (or at all), and, had their head of the house not intervened, they might have done something more than being just a mass of discontent students...

House Slytherin, a bit like their blue and bronze 'brothers' and 'sisters', was split into two. Though, there, one half just didn't care, content with the knowledge that these events would reflect badly on their house, while the other went ahead and started taunting everyone who wore Gryffindor colors about them being headmaster's dolls and scapegoats to be disposed as the _great Dumbledore_ saw fit... These proclamations became reason for more than one fight among students, which resulted in the house Gryffindor losing more than several house points as, for some reason, professor Snape always was the first one to arrive to where the fights were.

* * *

Surely enough, Peter Pettigrew, who was hiding somewhere in the castle in his animagus form didn't miss these news about Dumbledore's decision either. And he was quite happy with the fact that he wasn't recognized, and Sirius Black was blamed for the attack on the Fat Lady instead. This meant that the Hogwarts security will be tightened even further, and the chances of Black actually getting in successfully were even lower than they already were.

And since Sirius, likely, was the only person within a hundred or so miles, who wouldn't be fooled by Peter's rat form, the rat animagus felt a little bit safer. Actually, with how the things were turning out, he might be able to remain at Hogwarts for some more time, spying on Dumbledore for his master... He could always off the 'chosen ones' – both of them – later, if needed.

Still, in order to be in the best position to get information about the Hogwarts headmaster and his red-haired protege, he needed to return back to his 'owner'... Oh well, he'll just have to wait for another couple of days so that no one will question his sudden reappearance, before having Ronald find him somewhere. Yeah, that should work well enough, Peter decided. Now then, he was hungry, so the rat animagus headed towards the Hogwarts kitchens to steal some food for himself...

**~/ *** \~**

It was the end of the second week of December and the Defense Studies group was holding they last meeting this semester, and today they were listening to Nott, who was giving a small lecture about the ways to defend oneself from weaker (and, thus, more common) curses. And while pretty much everyone present was listening intently to Theodore, some had more than his lecture on their mind...

Draconica was that person. And a certain green-eyed wizard seating across the table from her was what occupied significant part of her mind at the moment. The blond witch decided that enough time has passes for her to try to reestablish her relationship with him and at the moment she was rather discretely measuring his reaction to get getting close to him: under the table she had their legs touch a in a way that without any questions was intentional. And since he didn't back away from her, Draconica happily thought that the young Potter was now over his bout of rather childish hate towards her. Of course, she would not ask for another 'session' with him right away, especially not after what their last one caused, but the blonde still hoped to get _that_ close to him once again, so that some time in the future she'll have a chance for another 'night'. She wouldn't mind that, not at all...

Harry, of course, was quite aware of her 'testing grounds', but he let her do that as, really, he was no longer angry with her – well, he shouldn't have been in the first place, as it was all his own decision that brought that fallout upon him, but like all teenagers, sometimes he did behave in illogical ways...

* * *

When Theodore finally finished his – actually quite lengthy, thanks to some additions from Tracey, Daphne and Susan – lecture, it was already close to six in the evening, and so the members of DS began leaving the library, where the group's meeting was, to get ready for the dinner and the Astronomy lesson that would follow it.

Harry, like often, stayed behind, but today some extra reading wasn't in his plans. And, not surprisingly for him, Draconica didn't leave either... Eventually, it was only two of them left in this corner of the library, meaning that they had some level of privacy for the time being.

"Harry, you are not angry with me anymore?" The blond witch asked as she stood up from her chair and walked up to where he was sitting. Turning around to face her, the green-eyed wizard just sighed in response, not really sure what he should tell her... It turned out he didn't need to say anything: 'Nica got her answer without him saying a word. "Thank you." She said quietly, placing her hand on his shoulder. For the next couple of seconds she just stood like this and then she walked away without another word.

"I'm not sure I will ever understand girls..." The young Potter said to himself as he shook his head. Sighing, he picked his stuff up and too left the library, heading back to the Gryffindor common room.

**~/ *** \~**

The rest of the semester flew by more or less without any major incidents as everyone was busy with the exams. And like everyone else, Harry had to study for those, even if not as much as anyone else, thanks to all those memories he had assimilated from the horcrux that once resided in his head. Still, as he was not as busy preparing for the exams, he noticed more things that happened around him. And so he did notice that after their little 'chat' in the library after that DS meeting, Draconica was once again getting closer to him.

Sure, it wasn't like she was inviting him to have some 'fun' or anything like that, but she neither was keeping her distance from him as much as she used to... Actually, it felt almost like she was indecisive about making one more metaphorical step towards him, the step that would put their relationship into the state it was just before _that_ 'night' had happened. And, remembering what had happened because of that, he could understand why. But since it was actually her decision, he did nothing to either encourage or discourage her from making that step...

**~/ *** \~**

Deciding not to stay at Hogwarts for the Christmas this year, Harry found himself riding the Hogwarts express during the winter months for the first time. And he had to admit that the scenery behind the windows was so much more majestic, when everything was covered with snow, while still more was falling from the sky... Of course, the experience could have been even better, had the train not being stopped to be searched by the aurors who were hunting Sirius Black down. At least, this time no one let the dementors aboard, which the young Potter was very thankful for.

The rest of the train ride was uneventful, and several hours Harry stepped out of the Hogwarts express onto the platform 9¾. And from there the green-eyed wizard, having decided that he should be close to the civilization for the next several days, apparated to his penthouse at Queenstown Road...

It was a bit dusty and there really was no food stocked there, but these little problems were nothing that Harry couldn't resolve himself, so some wandwork and a single trip to the nearest muggle supermarket later the young Potter had the penthouse ready for him to spend the Christmas holidays there. Of course, the place still needed to be decorated and everything, but that could wait till tomorrow, he decided, before having a quick dinner and calling it a day.

* * *

The next morning, like always, Harry woke up pretty early, but his morning post was already waiting for him. Today, along with his usual copy of the 'Daily Prophet', he got a letter from Violet, which he decided to read first.

According to the letter, madam Bones couldn't find any trial record for Sirius Black either. Actually, there was nothing in the Ministry records that said that the man had ever had a trial or even was charged with the crime he had supposedly committed. It looked like he had been sent straight to Azkaban against all DMLE regulations and standard procedures. And this was very strange – it was almost like someone wanted to keep Sirius Black silent about something...

So, Violet wrote, madam Bones had issued new order to the aurors, which said that they should apprehend Black and deliver him to the Ministry holding cells for a questioning, instead of giving him a dementor's kiss on spot.

While Harry was a bit angry with the Ministry for such a blatant ignoring of law truism in the past, he was now also content with the thought that he will now eventually get the answer to the question of why Sirius Black had betrayed his parents to Voldemort...

Since there wasn't anything else of any significant importance written in the letter, the young Potter switched his attention to his copy of the 'Daily Prophet'. Unfortunately, the newspaper was as crappy as always, and the information about the changes in the 'Black hunt' was all put into a small article somewhere near the last page. And even then, it was singing praises to the Ministry more than talking about why Sirius Black no longer had kill-on-sight order.

Done with his morning post, Harry quickly ate his breakfast, before heading to Diagon alley and the Gringotts bank: he planned to do some Christmas shopping today (at very least he needed to get some decorations for the penthouse), and he needed money for this.

**~/ *** \~**

Christmas this year was rather quiet for the young lord Potter. Mostly because he now was celebrating on his own, and not with all those people who decided to remain at Hogwarts... This, though, absolutely didn't mean that he didn't get many gifts. If anything, there were more than ever, as all of his friends – the vixens included – had sent him at least something.

It was also fun to go out and spend some time in an anonymous mass of people in London, who participated in the mass promenades, even if the greatest one were yesterday. So, all in all, Harry really did have a very fun Christmas this year. But it didn't mean that he was forgetting about the other things he needed to do.

So, once the Boxing day passed, the green-eyed wizard could be found either surrounded by the tomes and scrolls in the study of his penthouse, or in the public libraries. What he was looking for was anything that could help him deal with Voldemort, when the dark tosser finally decided to get himself a new body – and since Harry was unable to come up with a better idea than seal him away, he was looking for the ways to permanently contain soul somewhere. Of course, since this would be labeled as one of the most dark magics, he wouldn't find any ready-to-use recipes, but any references to how he could do what he needed still would be very helpful... That is if he finds any, as at the moment his luck seemed to have taken a vacation somewhere on the other end of the world.

Eventually, after about a week of fruitless searches, the young Potter decided that some greater force was preventing him from finding anything in an attempt to tell him that the holidays were to relax and live outside academics a bit. So, he decided to follow this 'advise' and abandoned his searches for now in favor of having some fun...

**~/ *** \~**

Since Harry was returning to Hogwarts a couple of days too early, there was no Hogwarts express for him, but it wasn't a problem for the young wizard as he just apparated to the Hogsmeade village. Of course, this meant that he had been very thoroughly checked by the auror patrol there – after all, it was not normal for the third-year Hogwarts students to know how to apparate... But as he wasn't Sirius Black in disguise, he was let go, after his identity was confirmed and his licenses for the magical methods of transportation were checked.

As it turned out, Harry wasn't the first one to return from the vacation: a good deal of his housemates, everyone from the quidditch team in particular, was already there. So, as soon as dropped this things at the dormitories, Oliver Wood, being his usual self, announced that tomorrow they will be having a training session.

* * *

Like the young Potter could have guessed, Oliver would never go easy on his team. The training began right after the breakfast and just as the cold late-December sun began rising above the horizon. Of course, when the time for lunch came, the training session ended, but it almost looked like Wood wanted to tell everyone to return to the pitch after they had eaten their meal, but decided to have pity for them at the last moment...

Since the weather was really chilly that day, everyone wanted to get back to the warm castle as fast as they could, so the Weasley twins and even the Gryffindor quidditch team captain himself had quickly changed into their casual clothes and left the lockers, leaving Harry, who was immersed in his thoughts too deeply to be as prompt as them, behind... Which turned out to be a good thing as it had saved the young Potter from the rounds of teasing he would have been undoubtedly put through otherwise:

Just as he was getting dressed after the showers, Harry heard someone enter the locker room, but thinking that it was one of his male teammates who had forgotten something there, he didn't pay in much mind. Right until he felt a pair of arms wrap loosely around his neck, while a couple of nice breasts was pressed into his back. And thanks to the time he had spent around the owner of this pair, he instantly knew, who decided to pay him a visit.

"Katie?" He asked, wanting to know why she was there. The said witch just lowered her head onto his left shoulder and for the next several seconds she was silent.

"Harry, I... C-Can you forgive me?" She finally said, surprising him a lot as he had a hard time thinking of any reason for this. Actually, he couldn't think of anything...

"Why?" He asked.

"Harry, I did a lot of thinking these holidays, and... Yes, you've betrayed me and hurt me a lot back then, but... I did hurt you just as much if not more..." The vixen replied, after a short pause. "At very least I should have protected you from Angi and 'Cia and not let them hurt you as much as they did... And I shouldn't have been so spiteful with you afterwards for so long..." Another pause, during which the brown-haired witch had pressed herself into him some more. "To be honest..." She continued in a voice that gave Harry a feeling that she was about to start shedding some tears. "To be honest, I knew for the longest time that you will end up with _her_. Yet I wanted to be with you as well... I got what I wanted, but with how good it had been, I've forgotten that... that I..." This was where Katie broke, and knowing that he needed to comfort her, the young Potter turned around and wrapped his own hands around the girl, absentmindedly noticing that she wasn't wearing any shirt at the moment...

"Sh... It's alright, Katie." He whispered soothingly, while pulling the vixen closer. "It's alright, I forgive you." The girl looked up at him, her eyes glistening with tears.

"T-Thank you." She whispered back, before snuggling back into his chest... For a couple of minutes the two teens sat in silence. Once Katie had somewhat calmed down, she detached herself from him a bit and looked into his eyes again. "Harry... Can we..." She fell silent there, apparently, unsure how to express what he wanted to say. He let her collect her thoughts, though. "Can we once again be _friends_ like we used to be?" The brown-haired witch finally said, and the young Potter just nodded in agreement as he saw nothing wrong with this... "Thank you, Harry." Katie said happily, as she extracted herself from his arms. "Now, let's go have lunch." She added with giggles, before disappearing towards girls' locker room.

* * *

That's all, folks!  
Leave me a **review**.


	46. Peaceful days

Here's the newest chapter for the "_**Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord**_", enjoy!  
Sorry for the delay, but I had neither time nor inspiration to finish the chapter the previous week. Thankfully, the next few already have their plot outlined, so if I have time to type them, then you'll have them.

*** Review response**:  
**Zikarn Krais**, **Penny is wise**, **The Swordslinger**, **Maleivius**, **tladar**, **Danget the critic**, **god of all**, **Dericof Diname**, **Grimjowx**, **Goldrune09**, **Zarosian Chaos**, **JPElles**, **Penseln**, **ElementalMaster16**, **fragglemaster**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
**killermouze**, thanks for noticing the typo.  
**Awsomeness7**, it's more like me not having enough imagination to think those up. Or, maybe, just being too lazy to think'em up. =P  
**Naginator**, Harry doesn't have complete access to Tom's memories. Those that were important to Tom before he was split into the horcrux are easier to access, while those deemed unimportant by him as harder to read for Harry. Plus the list of easily-accessible memories isn't constant, so... I'll have Harry discover who Ron's rat is exactly, but not now.  
**Shinku Ryuuga**, it will be modified and moved to the 4th year, but, yes, I'll rewrite it.  
**Alphawolfy288**, thank you, but I have no need for them THERE. might use later elsewhere, though... But then again, I have ideas for "Beastmaster" 2nd (with a completely different set of beasties to keep Harry happy)... I have enough OC of my own.  
**1337box**, don't watch the movies. Read the books! reading is so much better (even if there are less gals to fantasize about). =)  
**OverPowered**, next chapter, likely.  
Also, **EVERYONE**, Draconica's contract will be nullified in the next two chapter. The one to guess who will have a hand in this and how, gets a virtual cookie =)

*** Poll**: Looks like Sirius WILL live in this story, but if you disagree with this, you still have a chance to get what you want.

* * *

*** Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "_**Harry Potter**_" and its characters in any shape or form.

"human speech"  
"_wraith speech_"  
'_human thoughts_'  
"**powered speech / true prophecies by the seer**"  
"_**spells / parseltongue**_"

* * *

_This chapter is not beta-read yet._

* * *

**Chapter 46: Peaceful days**

While he might have had returned to Hogwarts several days before the beginning of the new semester, this did little to help the young Potter get prepared for the rhythm the professors set for their students once the classes resume. And the fact that the said professors seemed to be piling more homework than ever just because didn't help Harry have much free time, not at all. After all, even with the knowledge he had absorbed from the horcrux, he still needed to write his essays down, and those now needed to be at least eight inches long for any subject, save Care for Magical Creatures, that he was taking... Still, somehow the green-eyed wizard managed to still be in the loop about what was going on around him...

Sure, it was good to have Katie back, especially since them once again being more than just quite friendly with each other caused Alicia and Angelina to rethink their current treatment of the young Potter and try to be more friendly with him as well, but... But not everything could be perfect – this was something Harry knew well – and the first 'problem' didn't wait for long before uncovering itself: it looked like Ron's new fame was finally beginning to go to his head. And being invited to the ministry-sponsored Yule ball as the special guest definitely had something to do with this. Sure, the youngest son of the Weasley clan was still nowhere near _some_ blond arrogant Slytherin brats a year under him; and he did last much longer than the young Potter had expected him to, but still... Thankfully, Ron was easy enough to tune out, so his growing ego didn't bother Harry much.

The other 'bad thing' wasn't as easy to ignore, though: apparently, professor Stone left the DADA professor's position to continue his auror training. Sure, madam Bones had sent another auror trainee, a black-haired witch that went by the name of Alexandra Hawkeye, to fill in the spot, but she wasn't as good as professor Stone was, even if she too did know quite a lot about the subject she had to teach... But since the Defense Studies group was running alright, neither Harry nor his friends and associates weren't afraid that this swap of the their DADA professor will be of any great problem for them...

Anyway, all in all, this semester started out pretty well for the young Potter, and he really hoped that the thing would remain like this for the longest time. Unfortunately, with Sirius Black still out there, even if it was now not clear, whether he was a good or bad character there, Harry knew that these peaceful days weren't likely to last long...

** ~/ *** \~**

The Astronomy lesson that all four houses had together this Friday night had finally finished and now the students were tiredly walking back to their respective common rooms. And while most of them were already dreaming about their warm and comfortable beds that were waiting for them in the dormitories, some still had other things planned for this night...

Harry's mind was elsewhere as he allowed his legs to carry him back to the Gryffindor common room... Well, this was until he felt a hand gently brush against his own. Turning his head to look at the witch who did this, his eyes landed on Draconica, who, seeing than now she had his attention, tilted her head to the side, silently telling her ...friend that she wanted to speak with him tete-a-tete somewhere. Not seeing anything wrong with this – even thought it was past curfew, he had his invisibility cloak with him, so he won't be caught by professors or prefect patrols – the young Potter nodded. The pair slowed down a bit, letting the rest of their class outdistance them, and once there were no yearmates of theirs behind them, they disappeared into a corridor on the eighth floor. From there it took them barely a minute to find an unlocked an unused classroom, which they could occupy for their 'talk'.

Once they were inside, the blond witch quickly laid some basic wards, mostly just to keep others away from there, on the room's doors. Having finished with this task, she nodded him to sit down in one of the chairs and the young Potter did just that. 'Nica approached him, stopping just a couple of feet away and, cocking her head to the side a bit, looked into his eye.

"Harry..." She said quietly, before falling quiet for several long seconds. Finally, she continued. "I know that I liked what we did _that_ night,.. and I'm sure that you liked being one with me as well, but..." Another pause, though shorter than the previous one. "But repeating that is not what I want tonight. I just..." She lowered her head a bit, still maintaining the eye contact. "Just hold me tight for now, alright?" The green-eyed wizard nodded, making the witch smile lightly, before she invited herself to sit sideways in his lap, snuggling into his chest. For the next couple of minutes the two of them sat there in silence... Finally, Harry decided to ask the witch in his lap, what brought this all on:

"Um, 'Nica?.." He whispered, causing the blond witch to raise her head from his chest to look at his face, while also raising her eyebrow questioningly.

"Yes?" She replied.

"Not to sound ungrateful for your trust in me or anything, but... So far you were either keeping your distance from me or just broke down all barriers between us... What brought this night on?" Harry asked. In response Draconica sighed as she closed her eyes and lowered her head slightly.

"I didn't have the best of the holidays, alright?" She said finally and the young Potter decided not to pry any deeper, even if he actually had an idea of what might be the reason for his friend's current mood... Instead, he just held her a little bit closer to himself as she snuggled back into his chest...

* * *

The two of them stayed together like this for some time, though when Harry, lulled by the soft breaths of his friend, started dozing off, he decided that maybe it was about time the two of them go back to their respective common rooms for some sleep: while at first it was good to have Draconica in his lap like this, he wasn't sure that come morning he still will be of the same opinion.

"M-mm?" The blond witch moaned sleepily as the young Potter gently shook her awake. "Something happened?" She asked, looking up at his face. The green-eyed wizard shook his head.

"Sorry, but it's getting really late, and..." Harry fell quiet, not sure how to tell her inoffensively that maybe it was about time they parted their ways tonight. Or at least that they got more comfortable should she decided she wanted to continue cuddling with him for the rest of the night: for once he might actually agree to that... Draconica cocked her head to the side, thinking about what he tried to tell her. Pulling her own wand from somewhere in her robes, she cast a quick _**tempus**_ charm, which showed that it was a bit past midnight already.

"Sorry..." She said finally. "But I was so comfortable... Yet you're probably right, we should head back to our common rooms." With those words she reluctantly extracted herself from his arms and, standing up, straightened her robes.

"Do you want me to escort you back to the Slytherin common rooms?" Harry asked, pulling his invisibility cloak out – he decided that with everything that was going on, he should have it on his person at all times. The blond witch shook her head.

"Thank you, but you don't need to worry about me. I'll be alright" Draconica replied as she undid the wards she had put on the room. The green-eyed wizard just shrugged, deciding that his friend knew better what she wanted... He was about to put his cloak on, when he felt her arms snake around his shoulders. "Thank you for this evening, Harry." She said, giving him a light hug, before disappearing into the now-open door of the classroom. Sighing, the young Potter shook his head, and, finally putting his invisibility cloak on, headed back to the Gryffindor common room, hoping that he didn't land himself into some sort of trouble tonight...

**~/ *** \~**

Thankfully for Harry, no one even noticed that he didn't return with classmates from the Astronomy lesson that Friday night and he himself kept quite about that time he spent with Draconica. Not that something really bad could have happened otherwise, as he no longer was bound by any significant commitment at the moment, but still...

Other than this midnight 'adventure', the first three weeks of January passed rather quietly for the green-eyed wizard. Sure, _professor_ Snape was his usual nasty self towards him or anyone who didn't wear green and silver robes, but this wasn't something outside of normal, so... The fourth week, on the other hand, was rather significant because of the quidditch match between the Slytherin and Ravenclaw teams. The 'Snakes' won that game, but barely as the other team's chasers had scored quite a few times more than theirs. But this quidditch match was the only outstanding event of the month and once the agiotage about this game died down, Hogwarts returned to that measured rhythm of life it usually had at this time...

The rest of the world too was quiet and didn't produce any news that were interesting to Harry or pretty much anyone else in the castle. Sirius Black was still on the run from the aurors and thus couldn't be put on the trial he was denied all those years ago. Wizengamot, being a group of old and boring politicians it was, too didn't produce any interesting news – how they could be arguing about the standard thickness of cauldron bottoms for months was beyond the young lord Potter.

But these quiet times didn't last forever and by the end of the first week of February the castle was bursting with activity as the students and even professors were preparing for the upcoming St. Valentine's day. But as Harry himself was unattached at the moment, despite his sometimes-extreme closeness with Draconica and his close friendship with Katie, and wasn't really going to try asking either out now, he limited himself to just best wishes on this holiday to both girls in not even anonymous postcards... Too bad the the other girls in the castle, those that still saw him as some sort of a celebrity – even though Dumbledore (rightfully or not) took away the title of the 'chosen one' from him, Harry still was the only known survivor of the infamous _**killing curse**_ – didn't get the hint that he wasn't interested in them and were making their little 'evil' plans of how to make him theirs. Not that they had even half a chance to succeed...

The weekdays following the st. Valentine's day offered the Hogwarts inhabitants little chance to calm down after the holiday as that Sunday there was going to be the fourth quidditch match of the season: Gryffindor versus Hufflepuff – and even though it was still a week away, the student body was already excited about this game.

The one most excited about it (at least in the Gryffindor tower) unsurprisingly was Oliver Wood, who going out of his way to ensure that his team will win this match... And while his enthusiasm was admirable, the six other players of the team agreed among themselves that it would have been a bit better if their captain could remember to let them rest at least a little bit before the match, lest they lose simply because they were too tired from all of the training Oliver put them through to play properly.

**~/ *** \~**

Anyhow, something managed to convince Wood to let his players relax on Saturday, so when the Gryffindor team flew onto the pitch, they all were ready for the game with both their minds and their bodies... Their opponents, while not trained into the ground like them, too were well-prepared to do their best today, and for once the Hufflepuff team had pretty good players in it, so the game was going to be interesting and challenging without any questions.

But as Harry was a seeker, the only player of the other team he had to worry about was the Badger's own seeker, Cedric Diggory. The boy was three years older than him and, while he didn't possess the same inherited talent the young Potter did – even if it did sound a bit arrogant, Harry indeed was talented, when it came to flying – he too wasn't someone one could look down on, especially with his hard-working being taken into the consideration... And if he was to be completely honest with himself, the green-eyed Gryffindor would say that Cedric was possibly the strongest seeker at Hogwarts at the moment... But all of these thoughts were blown out of the young Potter's head with madam Hooch's whistle, and now he was concentrating solely on the game he needed to win.

As he was slowly flying circles around the pitch, looking for the tiny golden ball, Harry saw a huge black dog sitting near the edge of the Forbidden forest as it watched the game with far more attention and even understanding than one could expect from a dog. And while the green-eyed teen couldn't be sure about this, the dog looked exactly like the one that had attacked Ron Weasley on _that_ Hogsmeade weekend... Still, as this dog was of no importance for the game he was currently in, Harry decided that he should concentrate of finding the snitch before his opponent does instead.

Continuing flying around the pitch, the young Potter was doing his best to try and spot the highlight of gold that would give the position of the snitch away, but despite the chilly and clear February air, he couldn't see the winged ball anywhere. A quick look at the Hufflepuff seeker revealed it to Harry that Cedric had a similar problem. Oh well, the snitch will show up sooner or later, the green-eyed Gryffindor decided, as he continued slowly flying around the edge of the pitch, looking for the tiny golden ball.

* * *

The game was going for almost an hour and a half already, and Gryffindor chasers had scored sixteen goals, thus giving their team the advantage of forty points over their opponents, so for them the things were going OK. The same, though, couldn't be said about Harry as the snitch hadn't shown up anywhere yet, and it was pretty chilly up there: even the mild warming charms he had put on his closes before the beginning of the match weren't helping him much... But the couple of minutes passed and the things changed drastically:

Harry was flying Merlin knows which circle around the pitch as he was looking for the tiny winged ball, when he suddenly caught a glimpse of gold out of the corner of his eye. It looked like the snitch finally decided to show up, and it did it pretty much over the center of the pitch and right between the two seekers that were hunting it... Not wasting any time, the green-eyed Potter launched himself after the golden ball in hopes of catching it before Cedric, who noticed it as well, could do the same.

Almost like it sensed two seekers closing on it, the snitch tried to get away from them, but with how the things were, it just couldn't decide where to fly in order to escape and so it was flapping around where it was first spotted madly. Because of this, it all came down to whose broomstick was faster, and Harry's Nimbus 2000 was a winner there, even if by a relatively small margin...

With the golden snitch held tightly in his hand, the green-eyed Gryffindor slowly descended down onto the pitch to join his teammates that were already there, congratulating each other with the victory. And while his trust broom was on it's way down, Harry felt the urge to look towards the Forbidden forest, where he had seen that black dog earlier. Surprisingly enough, it was still there and, the young Potter thought, he could have being hallucinating, but the dog was cheering for his victory... Shaking his head in order to get rid of those thoughts – they really were giving him a headache – he looked back to where his teammates were cheering for him and waving him...

**~/ *** \~**

Sirius Black, still in his animagus form, was returning to his hiding spot in one of the caves in the mountains that surrounded the Hogsmeade village. Surely, the only Azkaban escapee in history knew that what he did was extremely risky as the auror and dementor patrols that were tasked with capturing him were still hunting after him, but he just wanted to see his godson play too much to actually care about that... And the luck was on his side as he didn't even see any DMLE agent either when he was sneaking onto the Hogwarts territory, or now, as he was sneaking out.

And from what he had seen, the rumors about Harry having inherited James' flying skills were true: the little Prongslet was a born flier. And even if Amos' son was good too, it was Harry, who ended the game in victory for the Gryffindor team by catching the snitch... Yes, Sirius smiled, his godson was cool!

But as good as knowing that the youngest Potter was alright, Sirius also needed to make sure that he himself was alright and not locked away, if he wanted to be a part of his godson's life in any way. So, the grimm animagus, hurried towards the safety of his hideout, while already thinking about what he was going to eat for dinner tonight...

* * *

Meanwhile, completely unaware of his godfather's problems (or even of the fact that Sirius Black was his godfather), Harry, along with his teammates and the rest of the house was celebrating their most recent victory over the Hufflepuff quidditch team, while having slightly drunk and lively and cheerful as always Katie sit in his lap.

* * *

That's all, folks!  
Leave me a **review**.


	47. Midnight fight

Here's the newest chapter for the "_**Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord**_", enjoy!  
OK... Not the longest chapter I've written, but... Oh, well...

*** Review response**:  
**Naginator**, **The Swordslinger,** **Nanashi113**, **Penny is wise**, **god of all**, **Ella1331**, **ElementalMaster16**, **Ayshun Dragon**, **OverPowered**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
**Maleivius**, um... dunno. teenage hormones? Anyway, Katie still has a role in this story, so it's far too early to remove her from the stage, so to speak.  
**Awsomeness7**, officially, sometime after the Yule ball next year. Unofficially, not sure, as the definition of "going out" is kinda stretchy.  
**ManlyMonk**, like I said to **Maleivius**, Katie hasn't fulfilled her role yet, so I won't get rid of her. As for that contract... Well, three guesses, what happens in this chapter?  
**1337box**, should I remind you, my dear reader, that Ginny is still in St. Mungo's after being almost drained of her life by the diary? I plan on bringing her back to Hogwarts for the next year, but she's still going to be nothing more than a shadow of her former self.  
**Zarosian Chaos**, it was a Ministry ball, and I see no reason for describing it as nothing really important happens there.

*** Poll**: Looks like Sirius WILL live in this story, but if you disagree with this, you still have a chance to get what you want. You still have 2 more chapters to decide the fate of the last male Black.

*** Author's Note**: Remus fans, can you find it in yourselves to forgive me?

* * *

*** Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "_**Harry Potter**_" and its characters in any shape or form.

"human speech"  
"_wraith speech_"  
'_human thoughts_'  
"**powered speech / true prophecies by the seer**"  
"_**spells / parseltongue**_"

* * *

_This chapter is not beta-read yet._

* * *

**chapter 47: Midnight fight**

The rest of February went by without any major events for Harry. Of course, the life at Hogwarts didn't suddenly become dull as ditchwater, especially with the Weasley twins around, but... Anyway, not having to worry about anything but his latest homework was good in the young Potter's mind – it finally allowed him to continue his research into the ways of dealing with Voldemort without having to destroy all of the man's horcruxes first.

But as he hadn't come up with an idea better than to seal the Dark Lord's soul away permanently, he had to find out how to do that and, obviously, the Hogwarts library and even its Restricted section, had nothing that could help him at all. So the green-eyed wizard had to turn to the Room of Requirement. Unfortunately, it looked like there weren't any easy way to accomplish what he needed that didn't involve sacrificing one's self in the process... Or did he just ask the room for the books and other stuff the wrong way? Still, disappointed with not finding anything good by the end of the first week of March, Harry decided to forget about this for a while and continue his research sometime later, when his enthusiasm would be restored.

This might have been a good decision too, as some of the professors thought that it was about time they started preparing their students to the end of year examinations, and so the amount of the homework they assigned all but doubled... Damn, they were just third years, and the young Potter didn't even want to think about what it will be like when he and his friends will be in their NEWTs or even OWLs years... Thankfully, some entertainment to keep everyone from going nuts from the amount of homework they had to do was on its way:

On Sunday, twentieth of March, the fifth qiudditch match of the season was played between the Slytherin and the Hufflepuff teams. And much like it was two months ago against the Ravenclaw team, the Snakes weren't having an easy game, even if this time their chasers were a little better that those of the opposing team... The game lasted for a little more than an hour and ended when the Slytherin seeker by some miracle – there wasn't any other explanation to how Basilius Malfoy managed to outmaneuver Cedric Diggory – got to the snitch first, thus earning the victory for the Slytherin team.

* * *

As the quidditch game did last too long today, no one even needed to run from the pitch to the castle to get to the Great hall on time for some lunch. And now that he was done with his meal, the young Potter was on his way to the Hogwarts library to do some more of his homework: after all there still was that project for Ancient Runes that he needed to finish by the end of the semester, and he had barely started it yet.

But it looked like the fates had something against him doing his homework today as soon, maybe fifteen or twenty minutes later, he was joined there by Draconica. And even if the blond witch was trying her best to appear as cold and distant and untouchable as always, Harry still could see that she was, well... It was just like an aura or something around her and he had seen her like this only once before, and it was way back in November, when the two of them had done _that_. On the second thought, 'Nica didn't appear this randy to him back then...

The blonde somewhat lifelessly dropped into the chair across from him, while under the table she gently touched his right foot with her feet, making it all but impossible for him to concentrate on his studies... Deciding that he indeed wasn't likely to make any progress with his homework at the moment, Harry closed his notebook and looked up at Draconica, who had her head propped on her hands as she was looking back at him... For the next several seconds the two of them just looked at each other, before the blond witch finally sighed and cocked her head to the side, while still having their feet touch under the table.

"Harry..." She breathed out, while her cheeks turned pink with a slight blush. "Can we?.." She asked, not even needing to finish the question to convey what she wanted to him. "Pretty please..." 'Nica added then with a pout, making herself all but irresistible to the young Potter. Sighing as he cursed his lack of willpower when it came to the pretty girls, the green-eyed wizard slowly nodded, accepting that there was no way for him to break free from under his _friend_'s charms...

**~/ *** \~**

Remus Lupin wasn't your average werewolf, not at all. Not only did he follow everything written in those quite barbaric werewolf regulations passed by Wizengamot, but he also was a Dumbledore's man through and throughout. And even more, he got to attend Hogwarts even though he was turned well before his eleventh birthday...

And this was where he befriended a prankster and, later, a hardcore Gryffindor Sirius Black. Or at least everyone though him to be such until the grimm animagus revealed his true colors by selling his closest friend and brother in all but name James Potter to the Dark Lord... But since the aurors under Crouch Sr.'s command send the bastard to rot in Azkaban till Death claimed his dirty soul, Remus thought the Potters to be somewhat avenged and, following Dumbledore's word, moved on...

But this last summer, after spending almost twelve years behind bolt and bar, Sirius Black somehow managed to escape the infamous magical prison, a place many would call the Hell on Earth, destroying that little world Remus managed to build around himself in the process. So, now, following the call to protect the chosen one and to put Black where he belongs, the 'good' werewolf of Britain was searching for Sirius, like many other members of the 'Order of the Phoenix' did, though he had slightly different reasons for this: Remus wanted to finally learn why his ex-friend decided to join the Dark Lord and why he sold the Potters to him...

Still, it looked like Sirius was even more Black than he ever let on, his betrayal of the Light included – only a true Black could hide like this for months with all of the aurors and just volunteers searching for him high and low and be spotted only once, by a portrait _inside_ Hogwarts of all things. But this only made Remus more determined to catch the grimm animagus and get to the bottom of what had happened prior to that fateful Halloween night twelve year ago...

At the moment, though, Remus was going walking through the under-bushes that grew on the outskirts of some muggle village in the southern Scotland – back in December, when Black had attacked the Gryffindor tower, the shabby werewolf looked for him around Hodsmeade, but having found nothing (partially because the snowstorm destroyed all of the scents in the area), he moved to the more southern regions in hopes of finding the traitor here. Alas, so far Remus had found nothing at all: it looked like Sirius somehow managed to completely 'go down the drain'.

And as the full moon was just three days ago, he was still recovering from his most recent transformation and so he wasn't in the best shape at the moment. Still, the wolf inside him was good enough to sense something coming at a great speed at him, and the shabby man, following his instincts, ducked down. A ash-gray curse flew the space his head was occupying just a moment ago...

Having studied DADA to level where he could get his mastery (if he wasn't a werewolf), and having fought in the war with Voldemort, Remus recognized this curse:_** vulnero**_ _**lupus**_, a very dark piece of magic specifically designed to hurt werewolves. The origins of this spell were unknown, but according to some rumors, Voldemort himself developed it to keep his subservient lycans in line with the fear of slow and painful death... And it looked like now someone was using this curse to eliminate him. Could it be Black himself? - Remus wondered.

* * *

Some seventy meters away certain wizard sighed as his curse missed, but it didn't ruin his mood. If anything, it only added to his ardor as it he rarely could find a victim that could put up even this much fight. Hunting and killing those dirty beasts that werewolves are was like a game to this man, and this game was the most interesting if the beast fought back... Yes, Frederick Gamp was on one of his werewolf hunts tonight, and so far this one looked to be the best one he had had in the long time.

Stepping out of his hiding spit in the under-bushes into the streak of moonlight, Frederick revealed himself to his soon to be kill, making the werewolf tense: it looked like his reputation preceded him. Good, the dirty beast should fear their betters, after all, they are allowed to live only because of their betters' whim.

"So, what do we have here?" The young lord Gamp asked, looking down at Remus, who now had his wand drawn as well. "What kind of a filthy, disgusting dog do I get to kill tonight?" His 'opponent' didn't say anything in return, but his grip on his wand noticeably tensed. Not wasting any more time on talking to someone whom he viewed as nothing more than dirt on the soles of his shoes, Frederick sent another _**vulnero lupus**_ curse at the werewolf in front of him...

Remus dodged the curse again, before training his wand at the attacker and firing three disarming charms in quick succession, but they splashed harmlessly against the other man's _**protego**_ shield. And as soon as that shield was dropped, the dark wizard sent a sickly-purple arc of a dark cutting curse at the shabby werewolf. The said curse, though, didn't reach its target, stopped by a stone wall transfigured from some debris that was there on the ground – even if Remus wasn't as magically strong as, say, Dumbledore or You-Know-Who, he wasn't a pushover either, so something like this wasn't impossible for him.

"Not bad for a dirty beast!" Frederick commented, feeling high in his ardor from such a challenging hunt – actually he couldn't remember the last time when his prey lasted for more than a minute against him. Yeah, this one was going to be the best werewolf hunt he had ever had... "Eat this!" He shouted, aiming his wand at the beast he was trying to put down. "_**Reducto!**_" Remus, though, wasn't going down just yet as he masterfully intercepted the curse with a piece of debris from the ground, causing it to explode prematurely...

And while his attacker was waiting for the dust from the explosion to settle down, the shabby werewolf transfigured a couple of stone dogs to attack the dark wizard trying to kill him, while he himself tried to escape the area with his life. Unfortunately, it looked like some anti-apparation and even anti-portkey wards were raised, and trying to bring those down would take more time than he had at his hands. So, Remus did the only other thing that made sense in this situation: he tried to run the hell outta here, while his attacker was still busy with those stone dogs...

* * *

Remus was still well outside of the village, when a couple of _**reducto**_ curses flew by, creating big explosions of dirt and dust in front of him as they hit the ground. Turning around, he saw his attacker, all out of his breath, running after him – why again those pure-blood bigots never exercise physically? Though, right now Remus was thankful for that...

"You... won't be... able to escape... me... filthy beast..." Frederick breathed out tiredly as he had more or less caught up with the werewolf he was hunting. "_**Sectumsempra!**_" His dark cutting curse missed the intended target by a large margin, making the lord Gamp curse his prey in his mind for making him run good two or even three hundreds meters. He re-trained his wand at Remus, who was slowly backpedaling towards the village, and started firing curses again. But since his mood for a hunt was completely ruined by that strenuous physical activity (running), he no longer held back with the curses that would mutilate and kill the beast with their first hit... Not that he managed to land even one hit with that valley of spells as the shabby werewolf raised some quite good transfigured shields to protect himself. "Stupid beast, die already!" Frederick growled, sending more dark curses at his target.

But again none of those had connected with Remus as the werewolf ducked behind a large bush that took the hit turning into a large flambeau in the process. With his 'cover' destroyed, Remus fired blindly a hair of disarming charms in the general direction of the other wizard, before making another attempt to run towards the village... He didn't manage to cover even twenty meters before a killing curse of all things whizzed past him, causing him to stop running and once again faced his attacker in order to defend himself.

"_**Vulnero lupus!**_" The young lord. Gamp shouted, throwing another curse at the werewolf, but it was dodged as were a cutting and a piercing curses that followed it. Damn beast was far more competent with its wand than Frederick was comfortable with, and, even worse, it was outlasting him, despite still recovering from the most recent transformation. He needed to off this stupid dog right now! "_**Crucio!**_" The dark-red beam of the unforgivable curse connected with the transfigured earthen wall that the beast had raised to protect itself. Pushing more of his magic, as well as his hate for the filthy no-good beasts, into the curse, Frederick made it break through the wall and connect with the werewolf that was hiding behind it, making the cur to hiss from the unbearable pain.

* * *

It took the lord Gamp about ten minutes of holding Remus under the most powerful _**crucio**_ curse he was capable of to burn off his anger from having his werewolf hunt turn this awful. And while these ten minutes weren't enough to torture someone into the state of a vegetable, especially when that someone's mind had a natural protections of a beast, this time was still enough to make anyone a quietly moaning and sobbing mess for the time being... And since his hunt had come to an end, Frederick decided that it was time to deliver the finishing blow. No, putting the filthy werewolf out of its misery with a killing curse seemed to be far too generous for him, so he opted to use that anti-werewolf curse instead.

"_**Vulnero lupus!**_" The ash-gray beam of magic left the end of his wand, moment later piercing Remus's chest just below man's heart. Since this curse would slowly and very painfully kill the werewolf over the next ten minutes or so, the lord Gamp decided that he no longer had any reason to stay here, so, turning around, he started walking away towards the edge of the anti-apparation wards that he had set up for his hunt – he couldn't disable those from the inside after all...

What the dark wizard didn't expect was his already downed prey finding it in himself to fight off the pain from the curses he was put under away to pick his wand up... Maybe it was the feeling of the approaching death, maybe it was something else, but all of those moral limiters that Remus had were no more – he no longer saw any reason not to kill his enemies.

"_**Reducto!**_" Frederick Gamp had no time to react to the overpowered curse, and it slammed into the back of his next and the explosion that followed it destroyed most of his body, leaving only blood stains on the ground. The Most Noble House Gamp was no more... With his killer dead, Remus, no longer having any strength left in him, fell on the ground in a heap and waited for Death to come for him.

Only now it occurred to him that having followed Dumbledore's word, he did absolutely nothing to make sure that little Harry was brought up in a way that his parents wanted him to... Actually, the shabby but kind werewolf had never seen his best friend's son even once since before that Halloween night more than twelve years ago... Really, how could he forget someone, whom he considered to be of his pack, like this? Remus had no answer to this question... And as his life was fading away from him, he only hoped that when he meets James and Lily on the next great adventure, they will be able to forgive him. Even if he didn't deserve their forgiveness...

* * *

That's all, folks!  
Leave me a **review**.


	48. Black letter

Here's the newest chapter for the "_**Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord**_", enjoy!  
Once again, the chapter is shorter than usual, but with the end-of-semester exams upon me, I really have troubles with both time and inspiration to write something as big as the chapters of this story used to be even a couple of months ago... But fear not, once I'm done with those exams, both the quality and the quantity are more than likely to be back.

*** Review response**:  
**Naginator**, **Danget the critic**, **reven228**, **The Swordslinger**, **ChaosTheVoid**, **god of all**, **ElementalMaster16**, **nobother**, **Nanashi113**, **The Sinful**, Auctor, **Penny is wise**, **OverPowered**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
**Vukk**, no, Gamp indeed was to marry Draconica.  
**Dericof Diname**, **plums**, I've replied you via PM.  
**Peeves' best friend**, **magical fan18**, **Impstar**, sorry. All out of mercy. All of that went to keep Amelia as good and living character in "_**Antifreeze fox**_" (I have a plot all up to the end of the latest fight with Novas, but no time to write it down)  
**Zorobak**, 'cause I plotted it so.  
**Jeremyjet**, it HAS purpose.

*** Poll**: Looks like Sirius WILL live in this story, but if you disagree with this, you still have a chance to get what you want. You still have 1 more chapters to decide the fate of the last male Black.

*** Author's Note**: Remus fans, can you find it in yourselves to forgive me?  
Also, this chapter is more or less an interlude, before the final action of Harry's third year begins...

* * *

*** Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "_**Harry Potter**_" and its characters in any shape or form.

"human speech"  
"_wraith speech_"  
'_human thoughts_'  
"**powered speech / true prophecies by the seer**"  
"_**spells / parseltongue**_"

* * *

_This chapter is not beta-read yet._

* * *

**chapter 48: Black letter**

Sirius Black, of course in his animagus from, exited the cave where he was living at the moment and headed down to the Hogsmeade village to steal something for breakfast and, maybe, a copy of the 'Daily Prophet' to stay in touch with what was going on in the wizarding world... But as soon as the only Azkaban escapee in history saw the rising sun, he stopped dead on his track: the sunrise was crimson.

'_This night some blood was spilled._' Sirius thought as he watched the reddish sun appear above the horizon. While normally he could care less about omens like this, today, for some reason, he knew that it was true. And also he had a feeling that someone whom he knew well had perished... Some minutes later the grimm animagus finally tore his gaze from the rising sun and looked at the majestic castle of Hogwarts that he could see from there. '_I hope that Harry is alright and safe from that rat._' Shaking his head, Sirius assured himself that Peter wouldn't dare anything that went too far with Dumbledore around, so his godson was safe. And with this positive thought occupying his mind, he continued on his way down to the village to steal some food to last another day...

**~/ *** \~**

Meanwhile, for the Hogwarts students this Sunday morning began like any other weekend day would... A little before nine in the morning Harry, along with his housemates that were already up by then went to the Great hall for some breakfast... Everything was more or less more or less like it always was, or it was so until the owl post arrived: among the multitude of various owls that flew into the Great hall one certain owl stood out. It was a regal eagle owl with Gringotts' coat of arms on its 'jacket', and this eagle owl was carrying a letter in a black envelope.

While Harry couldn't say that he knew all of the peculiar things about the magical society he now was a part of, he still knew quite a few of those, but he couldn't remember anything that could give him a hint to what the black color of the envelope meant... Elbowing Neville slightly to get the boy's attention, the young Potter nodded towards the Gringotts' messenger, which was now circling above the Slytherin table as it was looking for the recipient of its missive, silently asking his friend to tell him the meaning of the black envelope... After a second or two of looking at the Gringotts' eagle owl, the Longbottom heir finally gave his answer.

"Yes, Harry, these are very rare, so I'm not really surprised that you don't know what they mean. It the first time for me to see one too, but Gran explained their meaning to me before my first year. Gringotts sends black letters to the clients that are eleven or older, whose family member or someone they were contracted to has died recently." Neville explained. A couple of seconds later Harry nodded slowly, just as the eagle owl, having found the recipient of the letter it was carrying, landed in front of Draconica.

* * *

Having being raised in the pure-blood household, Draconica knew the meaning of a letter in a black envelope so, when an eagle owl carrying one landed in front of her, the blond witch got scared that something had happened to her family. Sure, her father was generally cold towards her, but he still was her father, and she never wished anything bad to happen to him. And had something happened to her dear mom... Draconica wasn't sure she'd be able to carry on...

Discretely looking down the Slytherin table, the blond witch was afraid to see that her brother got a similar letter, but there was none so she allowed herself a little sigh of a relief: if Basilius got no black letter, then her family was safe and sound. And if nothing had happened to her family, then there could only be one reason why she would be getting such letter... Carefully opening the letter, the blond witch read it, confirming her guess:

_Dear miss Malfoy,_

_It is our sad duty to inform you that Frederick Maximilian Gamp, in marriage contract with whom you were in, was confirmed dead at 01:45 am on this Sunday, March 27, 1994. The Gringotts bank in my face offers you our deepest condolences for your loss._

_We also are to inform you that due to the nature of the marriage contract you were in and as there are no known members of the Most Noble house Gamp still alive, the contract is considered null and void starting with the moment the death of Mr. Gamp was officially confirmed._

_Also, in accordance with the treaty of 1467 we are to inform you that you should contact the Inheritance and Wills Department of the Gringotts bank at your earliest convenience for the private reading of the late Mr. Gamp's will._

_Sincerely yours,_

_The head of the Contract Department of the Gringotts bank,_

_Bendblade III._

So, it looked like her contracted one had kicked the bucket, Draconica thought with a sigh. And knowing that man, it also happened while he was doing something both dark and more than likely illegal... And since the blond witch never really formed any emotional attachment to late Mr. Gamp, she just couldn't make herself care much about his death as a standalone event. Sure, she will be making an appearance of a mourning bride-to-be for the required thirteen weeks, but that was it...

The ramifications of the contract being broken this way, on the other hand, was something that she did care about. Sure, per the pure-blood traditions, she was safe from being married away for the next seven months, but after that... Her father _will_ marry her away, and now that her reputation of an upstanding young lady was irreparably damaged by the fact that the previous man she was contracted to died, even if she herself really had absolutely nothing to do with that, her bride price was much lower now and so there was a chance that she'd be married away into some even less pleasant family line.

And this definitely was something that Draconica wanted to avoid. Especially when her freedom and her happiness were so close – maybe that was the first streaks of her teenage rebelliousness, but the blond witch wasn't about to let the future she herself wanted be destroyed by her lord without her putting up a fight. Still, at the moment there was little she could, but she had seven months to think of something, before the things will start going downhill... Shaking her head, she neatly folded the letter and put it into the inner pocket of her robes, before returning to her meal.

* * *

Of course, the arrival of the Gringotts owl carrying a letter in a black envelope didn't go unnoticed by other members of the house Slytherin, though most stopped thinking much about it when they saw that they weren't the recipients of the said black letter. The Greengrass sisters and Tracey, being 'Nica's friends, weren't among those 'most', though they too preferred studying their friend's reaction to the letter to offering their condolences right away. And this turned out to be a right decision as it didn't look like Draconica was upset much by the contents of that letter... Sure, the three witches still would offer her their condolences, but mostly because the pure-blood customs required them to. Is there any real point of doing so to someone, who didn't care much _that_ death herself?

* * *

Harry, once he had learned the meaning of the black letters from Neville, too decided that he should offer 'Nica his condolences and his support too, should she require it. So, once he finished his meal, he left the Great hall, stopping just outside its massive doors and waited there for his Slytherin friend... He actually didn't have to wait for long as several minutes later Draconica emerged from the Great hall, accompanied by Daphne, Tracey and a little 'ball' of endless energy that was Astoria.

"Harry?" The Malfoy witch asked, cocking her head to the side slightly in a silent question if why he was there waiting for her. The rest of the girls kept silent, understanding that it was their friend who was the reason for the young Potter being there... Harry took a deep breath, while still trying to bring the words for what he wanted to say together, but, for some reason, his brain wasn't cooperating well at the moment, so he ad to settle for something most simple:

"My condolences." The green-eyed wizard said after several long moments of being silent.

"Thank you, Harry." Draconica replied politely with a nod, yet also in a way that told him that there was no real need for those... Harry, though, already understood this as he could see that the contents of that black letter didn't cause her to be in the low spirits much.

So, nodding to her something along the lines of 'be safe' to which 'Nica responded with a similar nod of her own, the young Potter was on his way back to the Gryffindor tower... He was already just a corridor away from where the entrance to the common room was, when a thought occurred to him: for some reason in the recent days Draconica was calling him by his first name more and more often, even when they were in public. And, if he was to be honest with himself, he liked this.

**~/ *** \~**

Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore was a patient man – the positions of power he held in the magical world required him to be as patient as one can be – but he was still getting worried. Remus was supposed to send his report on the progress in searching for Sirius Black's trail with the owl post this morning, but the said report still hadn't arrived, even if it was late afternoon already.

Sure, while the timely delivered and accurate information was vital in many things, but it wasn't the lack of the information that was making the Hogwarts headmaster worried. No, the lack of the report itself was – as far as Dumbledore could remember, Remus never failed to turn his reports, be they some mere school essays or war-time intelligence of greatest importance, in in a timely fashion if he could help it... Something must have happened, and the ancient wizard hoped that the reason for this delay was as simple as the the man needing more time than usual to recover form his latest transformation.

But somewhere in the depths of Dumbledore's mind a dark thought existed, and this thought was telling the Hogwarts headmaster that the things weren't as perfect as he wanted them to be. Unfortunately, the keen eye for details, such as the arrival of the black letter this morning and the rather impassive reaction that Ms. Malfoy had to it, was in agreement with that thought. It looked like the young Mr. Gamp found an opponent he couldn't take on during his latest (and also his last one) werewolf hunt. And while Dumbledore was really hoping that his fears were baseless and Remus was alright, so far the evidence he had at his hands was only pointing towards the worst...

**~/ *** \~**

The next morning started rather weirdly for Harry as he received a missive from Gringotts' Department of Inheritance and Wills. And this letter said that he was one of the major inheritors to some man named Remus Lupin whom he had never even heard of. Still, from how this missive was worded, the young lord Potter could see that it would be for the better if at very least his trusted representative would be there for the will reading – he just wasn't sure that he wanted to attend the will reading of the person he had never met in person...

After some thinking he decided that he could ask Violet to be at the will reading in his place, especially since she was by far better versed in the magical law than he was and could deal with pretty much any legal problems that could arise.

* * *

Meanwhile, at the professors' table Albus Dumbledore was doing his best to keep his kind and jolly grandfatherly mask on, while on the inside he felt really sad that his worst fears about Remus' fate turned into truth. If goblins said that someone was dead, then they true and that person indeed was no longer among the living... Sure, Remus died while doing his best to make the wizarding Britain a better and safer place, but the ancient wizard held no illusions about his student dying with a smile on his face. If anything, he was surprised that the werewolf didn't place some curse on him with his last breath for being sent on this mission... Still, Dumbledore reminded himself, he needed to do his best to keep the Hogwarts students from seeing him distraught like he truly was: it would be highly detrimental to their learning, and raising the new and better generation of witches and wizards was the most important mission of his life.

Beside Dumbledore, his long time colleague and his successor as the deputy and transfiguration professor, Minerva McGonnagal too was having a similar problem as Remus Lupin had been one of her favorite students, even if she always did her best not to play favorites. And she too knew that for the sake of her current students, she should keep her emotions bottled inside, but not being as gifted in the mind arts as Dumbledore was, she wasn't doing just as well...

Down the professors' table one Severus Snape too was deep in his thoughts. Sure, he didn't see eye to eye with Remus Lupin, but the now late werewolf still had a shred of the Potion Master's respect. For knowing when he needed to stop, even if he was too soft to make the other three Marauders listen to him, and for doing his best to succeed despite the hardships his status of a werewolf brought with it... And this death caused Severus to think of his own life: he was a survivor, he was a double agent, who really was working only for his own gain, but... was he not risking too much with acting like he did, now that the war that almost torn magical Britain to pieces had finished a decade ago? No, the Hogwarts Potions Master told himself as he shook his head. The Dark Lord will return one day, for he was not yet dead, and until Voldemort was either no more or the king of the world, the only thing that he could do was to continue playing this dangerous game he was by now so used to...

**~/ *** \~**

Several miles away from the Hogwarts castle, in a cave that was hidden among the mountains that surrounded the Hogsmeade village, an eagle owl landing next to him had scared the death out of one Sirius Black. For the moment the only Azkaban escapee in history feared that he had been finally discovered, but seeing the Gringotts crest on the jacked the eagle owl had, he allowed himself to relax a bit: goblins, as long as he didn't brake any of the human-goblin treaties, didn't really care about his status among the other humans, so he was safe for now. Still, the very reason the goblins felt they needed to contact him made Sirius worry. But the grimm animagus still made himself open and read the letter the eagle owl brought to him...

And once he finished reading the letter, Sirius just crumpled it and threw in the darkest and deepest corner of the cave he was staying it. Everything to get it out of his sight and out of his mind for he just couldn't make himself believe that now he was the last true Marauder and that Mooney had died. Even if goblins were never wrong about things like this. No, it couldn't be happening, he tried to assure himself as tears began falling out of his eyes...

The regal eagle owl that Gringotts used to deliver this letter gave the pitiful human one last look before taking off and heading back to its owlry in London as its mission there was done.

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That's all, folks!  
Leave me a **review**.


	49. The rat on the map

Here's the newest chapter for the "_**Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord**_", enjoy!  
Sorry for not posting the chapter the previous week, but I was really busy with my studies as it is now the end-of-semester exam's time... Actually, there will be no stable updates till I'm done with those (19th June), but I will do my best to post weekly.

*** Review response**:  
**chm01**, it does indeed solve that particular problem.  
**Naginator**, **god of all**, **Hoffindor**, **Maleivius**, **Impstar**, **Nanashi113**, **ElementalMaster16**, **ManlyMonk**, **Zarosian Chaos**, **Penny is wise**, **GinHanelle**, **Lord Xantos A. Fowl**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
**Dericof Diname**, yes, he will have to make such a decision quite soon.  
**The Swordslinger**, no, I'll make a timeskip for the summer after Harry's third year - I'll be giving away too much of what shouldn't be uncovered for now otherwise. But I might put some scenes from this summer into the flashbacks later on. Some other things might surface during the various discussions that the characters will have.  
**Danget the critic**, hopefully, this chapter will be a bit better. The next two, though... I expect too much talking and not enough action there.  
**Awsomeness7**, he he he... But you guessed right, in the end she will get disowned (what a mistake! serves Lucius right.) ; )

*** Poll results**: Sirius was voted to live. Rejoice.

*** Poll**: There is a new poll in my profile. The question this time is the following: do you want me to write a snip-off (likely, lemon-ic) one-shot to this story with the pairing of Harry/Violet? As usual, the options are '_**Yes**_', '_**No**_' and '_**I don't care**_'.

* * *

*** Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "_**Harry Potter**_" and its characters in any shape or form.

"human speech"  
"_wraith speech_"  
'_human thoughts_'  
"**powered speech / true prophecies by the seer**"  
"_**spells / parseltongue**_"

* * *

_This chapter is not beta-read yet._

* * *

**chapter 49: The rat on the map**

While Harry hadn't really noticed it right away that day – his mind was too busy worrying about being summoned to the will-reading of a man he didn't remember meeting even once in his life – Draconica, following the pure-blood custom, was now seen in her mourning clothes. These clothes, being the only allowed alternative to the uniform that all students had to wear during all classes and all feasts, consisted of more prudish than normal and still black skirt, black shirt instead of normal white and no house-colored tie, which left the crest on her robes to be the only indication that she belonged to the house Slytherin.

Still, even though she was making it look like she was mourning over her late fiance's death with the clothes she was wearing, in all other aspects the blond witch hadn't changed at all, remaining her ice queen with passionate heart self that Harry grew to, he dared to think, love. Well, she did refrain from acting up on those passions, for the time being, at least...

* * *

Meanwhile, the school year continued. The final week of March passed slowly and without any major incidents, in castle or otherwise, but the young Potter was actually happy about this: maybe, this year, he will be finally allowed to have a peaceful end-of-the-year with no dangerous adventures threatening his life like those that had happened the previous two springs.

The first couple of days of April, on the other hand, did have something major happening during them. April the first never was an uneventful day at Hogwarts, but this year the (in)famous Weasley twins really licked all creation, organizing possibly the most prank-filled day in the history of the school. And if Harry were to believe the rumor mill, Filch would be cleaning up the mess the twins created for weeks, and, for once, it was likely that the rumors were truthful...

On the next day, right after the breakfast ended, _professor_ Snape approached Draconica and told her something, after which the two of them hurriedly left the Great hall. Like Harry had learned later from the blond witch herself, the Potions master was escorting her to Gringotts for the will reading of late Mr. Gamp. Though, this turned out to be an unnecessary thing to do as the bastard just sealed all of the Most Noble house Gamp's monies, properties and titles away, not giving even a knut to anyone. And he did it in such a way that even Lucius with the help of his barristers couldn't find a loophole to use to assimilate those into the Noble house Malfoy through the marriage contract Draconica was in. Of course, Lucius was far from happy with this, and so were the goblins of the Gringotts bank, though their reasons were entirely different...

Sunday, April the third, was the day of the Remus's will reading, but since Harry didn't plan to attend it in person, to him this day was more or less like any other weekend day. Unfortunately, though, this meant that he would have to deal with the fallout of this will reading the first thing tomorrow morning. Oh well...

Indeed, Violet's letter, containing her report on the events of the Remus's will reading, arrived on the Monday morning with the rest of the owl post, and Harry, being curious about who this Remus person was and what he could have left to him, read this letter right away.

Late Mr. Lupin turned out to be, if the young Potter was to believe the letter, a rather close friend of his father – this made the green-eyed wizard snort: some good friend this Remus fellow was if he never even bothered to check up on his friend's orphaned son... Also, according to Violet, late Mr. Lupin was quite poor, so Harry, despite being one of the major inheritors, got only little more than three hundreds galleons and a chest filled with old and dusty prank items and some more-than-decade old school notebooks that were of questionable use to him. Still, as Mr. Remus Lupin was, supposedly, a good friend of his father, and willed him to have these items, Harry decided that he should accept those items, should they prove to be clear of any dark magics. If anything, he could always get rid of the unneeded schlock later...

Back to the present, though, it was almost time for the first lesson to start, so, carefully folding Violet's letter and putting in into his robe's inner pocket, the green-eyed wizard quickly finished his breakfast and all but raced to the Gryffindor common room to get the books he will need for his classes today...

**~/ *** \~**

Two weeks later, Harry was returning to the Gryffindor common room from the library in the late afternoon, when he heard the Weasley twins discussing something over-emotionally in one of the unused classrooms – apparently the prankster duo either forgot to put the silencing charms or didn't think that they'll be overheard there. And from the fragments that the young Potter managed to get, Fred and George were talking about some dead person walking around in the broad daylight somewhere. With his curiosity getting the better of him, the dark-haired teen carefully approached the door of the classroom and listened:

"...And I'm telling you, the map has never lied before: if it shows something, then it is there!" One of the twins said, rather heatedly. A moment later the other twin replied, just as heatedly:

"Then care to explain, why there is one Peter Pettigrew in the Ron's room? As far as I remember, Black killed him twelve years ago!" Unfortunately, a moment later Harry leaned on the door a bit too hard and it swung open, making him fall into the classroom awkwardly... "_**Mischief managed.**_" One of the twins said quickly, making the writings on the parchment he and his brother were studying disappear, as they whirled around, their wands trained at their uninvited guest. For a couple of seconds no one moved, but then the twins lowered their wands.

"Harry, mate, you gave us quite a scare right now." Gred – or was it Forge? - said. "You really ought to knock on the door next time you decide to visit us, or we might inadvertently charm the hell out of you." The young Potter looked away from them as got back onto his feet, feeling quite awful about what he had just done.

"Sorry, guys... and, I couldn't help but overhear you talking about Peter Pettigrew supposedly being somewhere in castle right now." The twins looked at each other, as if telepathically talking to each other, before turning back to Harry:

"Well, Harry, since you have caught us red-handed, we guess..." He stopped there to let his brother continue for him.

"...We can tell you. See this parchment." The currently-talking twin asked, holding what appeared to be a fairly big and quite old square piece of parchment. The green-eyed Potter nodded, silently asking 'what of it?' or something like that. "This parchment is quite special... If you would, oh brother of mine." The second twin nodded.

"Sure._** I solemnly swear that I'm up to no good.**_" He said solemnly, while touching the parchment with his at once, thin ink lines began to spread like a spider's web from the point that the wand had touched. These lines joined each other, they crisscrossed, they fanned into every corner of the parchment. A couple of seconds later words in great, curly green letters began to blossom across the top (though, Harry was fairly sure that when he fell into the classroom, this part of the parchment was at the bottom), forming words, that proclaimed:

_Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs  
Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief-Makers are proud to present  
THE MARAUDER'S MAP_

"As you can see..." The second twin, likely George, continued. "This parchment is a very special map that shows the whole castle and most of its grounds, but, most importantly, it shows where every single person in the castle is." Indeed, Harry could see himself, Fred and George in one of the classrooms on the seventh floor, while Dumbledore could be seen sitting in his office.

"So, this is how you do your pranks and managed to avoid being caught?" The green-eyed wizard asked. The twins, both of them, nodded.

"Yeah, but we'd like it if you could keep this little map ours a secret from others." Harry nodded quickly, not wanting to be the subject of twins' ire: their pranks could be quite embarrassing and cruel if they wanted them to be such.

"Sure, I won't give you away." He said and the twins nodded.

"You better not." George said, before continuing his 'lecture'. "As far as we can remember, this map was never wrong, but recently we noticed something strange." He said as he pointed at the dot labeled 'Peter Pettigrew' which was in the room that Ron was given after the attack on the Fat Lady... Harry frowned: wasn't this man supposed to be dead?

"A-ah, I see that you now understand what made us so ...emotional just now." Fred said. "It's either this map is malfunctioning, or someone managed to trick the entire magical Britain." Harry nodded in agreement, while frowning further. He couldn't remember name Pettigrew from the memories of Voldemort, but he was quite sure that the Dark Lord had had a follower to whom he addressed as 'Wormtail'. How strange...

"I don't know... Might be either." The young Potter breathed out, his mind still working on trying to find more about this 'Wormtail' character from the memories he had assimilated. "But maybe you should ask your brother or something? I'm not really on the best terms with Ron and it'd look even more strange if I approach him and ask something like 'are there any supposedly dead men sleeping in your bed?', will it not? But I still will be on the alert for anything strange happening around the castle." Harry said. The twins thought about it for several seconds, before nodding in agreement.

"Yeah, you're right, mate." Fred said. "It'd really be better if we do ask Ronnikins ourselves. And thanks for agreeing to help us. We'll really need someone else on the look out in case something really major is happening there." Harry nodded.

"I'll go then? I still need to start on my Runes homework." The twins though didn't really look like they'd allow him leave just yet. Likely, it had something to do with that little map of theirs.

"You will not divulge our secret to anyone, got it Potter?" George hissed at Harry, while Fred was blocking the exit from the classroom with magic. The green-eyed wizard sighed. Sure, he expected this, but it was still not helping his headache he was getting from thinking about Voldemort's servant 'Wormtal'.

"Do you want me to swear an oath or something? I won't give your secret away." He snapped at them unintentionally. The twins looked at each other.

"I reckon dad would not be very happy with us if we put him under some oath, right, oh brother of mine?" Fred asked. His twin nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, remember what happened when we tried to make Ronnikins swear an unbreakable vow? I think that was the only time when he was yelling at us and not mum." George replied, before turning to Harry. "Guess, we'll have to trust you... But you know what will happen should you give us away." The young Potter nodded.

"Don't worry, I won't." He said. The twins nodded to each other and finally let him leave the classroom... And as he was once again on his way back to the Gryffindor common room, the green-eyed wizard kept thinking about this whole situation uncovered by the twins' map. There still were some things that he didn't understand, like why would Pettigrew, if he was indeed alive, hide for years if everybody thought that it was Black, who betrayed Potters to Voldemort. The most plausible answer would be because it was him and not Black, who worked for the Dark Lord, but Tom's memories that Harry had skimmed through didn't have much if anything about any person named Peter Pettigrew, or... Were Pettigrew and that 'Wormtail' character the same person? That definitely would make sense, but it still sounded a bit far-fetched. Shaking his head, Harry decided to ponder on this sometime later as now it was giving him one massive headache...

**~/ *** \~**

Peter Pettigrew was now scared, very very scared: it turned out that the map he, James, Remus and Sirius made when they were at school wasn't as lost in the Filch's office as they thought, and now someone had it. And this someone paid enough attention to it to discover him on it – the map wouldn't be fooled by his animagus form, unfortunately. And he didn't even knew who exactly had the map (even if he had a good idea), so stealing it to keep himself hidden wasn't really possible...

Sure, he could go on a killing spree, silencing everyone who might have heard even a single word about him not being dead, but this extreme action wasn't good either: not only Peter wasn't sure that he can take on a common-room-full of students and live, but doing something like this would actually alert the entire wizarding world that he was not as head as they thought... Trying to keep hiding by staying with Ronald Weasley too wasn't really an option now as the kill-on-sight order for Black was lifted and, once the DMLE catches him, Sirius definitely will be questioned under the veritaserum, which without any doubts will reveal that he – Peter Pettigrew – wasn't dead and actually was the Death Eater who sold Potters to the Dark Lord...

Speaking of the Dark Lord, according to the old fool Dumbledore, lord Voldemort wasn't dead, not completely at least, and now he was hiding somewhere in the forests of Albania. Peter frowned at this thought: knowing his master, the Dark Lord will not be happy with his followers that didn't even try to search for him after that fiasco with the Potters, but maybe, just maybe, being first to return to his side will save him from the worst of Voldemort's ire? Yes, likely, Pettigrew assured himself – if helped his master to regain his powers, then the Dark Lord might actually make him one of his lieutenants! So, Peter decided, he should flee the castle and start looking for lord Voldemort.

Of course, there still was huge problem that had the name of Sirius Black who, without any doubts was there to make him pay for what he did twelve years ago, but Pettigrew was pretty confident that, no matter how good the grim animagus was, he still will be able to slip past him as a rat...

* * *

So, in the early night on the April 22th, right after those in possession of the map came way too close to discovering that Scabbers the rat was actually him in disguise, Peter Pettigrew decided that it was about time he fled the castle, if he valued his freedom and his life. Good thing, it was almost full moon and he could see where he was going very well. Bad thing, it was true for the others as well. Peter had to avoid being captured and eaten by Mrs. Norris trice before reached the ground floor of the castle.

But now he no longer was inside the castle – a crack in the front doors really helped him there – and so he didn't need to care about that trice damned cat anymore. Actually, now he just had to reach the edge of Hogwarts wards and he could apparate away. Here Peter allowed himself to relax a little and dream about the good things he will be enjoying once the Dark Lord makes him his right hand...

Unfortunately for the rat animagus, as he was daydreaming, he didn't notice a big black grim-like dog approach him from the direction of Forbidden forest. And when he finally did notice the dog, its jaws were already closing around him, so he had no chances of escaping...

**~/ *** \~**

The next day didn't start very well for Harry as he had to listen to Ron moaning to anybody who was willing to listen about how his rat had deserted him for the whole morning... And while it got quite annoying for the young Potter rather quickly, this also was like a proof that Scabbers the rat indeed was a Death Eater 'Wormtail' in disguise. And since he and the Weasley twins came too close to discovering his true identity, the rat animagus decided to flee while he still could.

Right now it was lunch and Ron was retelling the sad story of his rat's disappearance for what seemed to be a hundredth time, which was not helping Harry's mood at all – even Hermione said that he should relax and stop thinking about something so hard all the time! Harry shook his head: maybe he really should follow that advice?

"I think I'll go outside for some fresh air." He said once he finished his lunch. "I'll be by the Black lake if you need me." He added, before heading out of the Great hall and then out of the castle altogether. Harry thought then that maybe he should have done this earlier as the weather that day was great... As he approached his favorite spot on the bank of the Black lake, the young Potter noticed something near the edge of the Forbidden forest that was looking at him intently. But upon closer inspection, this something turned out to be just a huge dog or, maybe, a wolf. Shaking his head, Harry turned back to look at the lake, but sudden movement caused him look back to where the dog was. It wasn't there anymore – in its place there now was a wizard, though the shadows made it really hard to tell what he looked like... The last thing that Harry saw before the darkness claimed him was a red bolt of a knock-out spell speeding towards him...

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That's all, folks!  
Leave me a **review**.


	50. Sirius confrontation

Here's the newest chapter for the "_**Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord**_", enjoy!  
I'm sure you all know about the mess that started a week ago. I know that this is a really weak excuse for not updating my stories according to the schedule I set myself, but... well... that stunt the admins pulled had killed my inspiration for days, as well as forced me to concentrate on saving my favorite read before it got deleted. Anyway, somehow, I managed to finish the 50th chapter of the "_**Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord**_", and now I present it to you.  
On the side note, as this story technically violates the ToS of this site, it can be deleted at any time. But don't worry, maybe even today, I'll copy it over to yourfanfiction .com, so, if it disappears from this site, you can continue reading it there. The link to my account can be found in my profile.

*** Review response**:  
**Naginator**, **ElementalMaster16**, **reven228**, **Penny is wise**, **Impstar**, **god of all**, **1337box**, **Dusk Ado II**, **Drake0x**, **OverPowered**, thanks for your reviews, folks!  
**The Swordslinger**, sorry, but the _rat_ is not dead yet.  
**Awsomeness7**, well, sometimes quantity is enough to compensate for quality. And fighting against 40+ opponents is not likely to end in a good way for the single warrior.  
**Joe Lawyer**, Harry is going to get 'awesome' over the summer, though Sirius will have nothing to do with this. And, no, I'm not giving any spoilers to what is going to happen yet. Actually, I will only tell about the events of the summer '94 in flashbacks...  
**Zarosian Chaos**, well, show me one not-time-travel story where Harry goes looking for Wormtail? I can't really recall any.

*** Poll**: There is a new poll in my profile. The question this time is the following: do you want me to write a snip-off (likely, lemon-ic) one-shot to this story with the pairing of Harry/Violet? As usual, the options are '_**Yes**_', '_**No**_' and '_**I don't care**_'. At the moment, majority has voted '_**yes**_'

* * *

*** Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "_**Harry Potter**_" and its characters in any shape or form.

"human speech"  
"_wraith speech_"  
'_human thoughts_'  
"**powered speech / true prophecies by the seer**"  
"_**spells / parseltongue**_"

* * *

_This chapter is not beta-read yet._

* * *

**chapter 50: Sirius confrontation**

Harry felt himself being jerked away from the unconsciousness and back into the real world by someone's magic... Before even opening his eyes, the dark-haired teen quickly checked himself: he was in one piece and aside from some bruises – it looked like he was dragged to wherever he was, instead of being levitated there – he was fine. Even his wand was still in its holster, though the young Potter was quite positive he couldn't be able to use it at the moment as his body was tied up with some magical ropes, preventing him from moving.

Finally opening his eyes, Harry surveyed the place where he was... It was a very disordered and dusty room with paper peeling from the walls and many stains on the floor, some of which looked like old blood. And every piece of furniture in the room was damaged in some way; good deal of it was actually more or less completely destroyed. Finally, with all of the few windows there boarded up, little to no light came from the outside, making it rather hard to tell what time of a day it was now... Actually, the young Potter thought, with the claw marks and old locks of ripped fur scattered everywhere, this house would fit quite well in some horror movie...

Shaking his head, the green-eyed wizard tried to think up where he was. Since it looked like there was some sunlight coming through the boarded up windows, he concluded that it was an early afternoon now. Not that it really helped him in determining his location... Making a wild guess, the young Potter marked this room as a part of the Shrieking Shack in his mind – knowing how illogical the wizarding world was most of the time, his kidnapper wouldn't think of dragging him too far from where the attack commenced.

Then Harry looked in other direction and finally saw the man who had abducted him from Hogwarts. The said man looked sick and filthy with his matted hair hanging to his elbows and waxy pale skin, which made an impression that he hadn't being out in the sun for decades... The man looked really thing with his bones clearly visible, but despite this his eyes shone quite brightly from the dark sockets of his skull-like face...

"I'm sorry, Harry..." The man, whom Harry now finally identified as Sirius Black, said in a raspy voice, while baring his teeth, so yellow and unhealthy that any self-respecting dentist would force him into the chair and keep him strapped there till all those abominations were white and shining. "But this was the only way I could think of to make you listen to me." Then there was a pause during which the young Potter wasn't sure what he could say to the Azkaban escapee. "Anyway..." Sirius Black finally continued. "This _rat_ is the reason for this whole mess." He said, gesturing towards the cage that stood on the partially-broken table next to him. In the cage there was a rat that trying really hard to escape... And it was doing it clearly in a way that a human would do.

"So..." Harry finally spoke, his eyes focused on the rat. "I take it, this is Peter Pettigrew?" He asked, shocking both Sirius and the rat speechless. Well, Peter just froze in place, forgetting about his attempts to free himself from the cage he had been forced into. After a couple of seconds, the Azkaban escapee recomposed himself.

"H-How did you know that?" He asked, looking straight into Harry's eyes, as if trying to read the answer straight out of the teen's mind. The green-eyed wizard shrugged as best as the ropes allowed him to – while to the anyone it would look like he was fine with being all tied up, in reality he was just trying to keep Black's attention off his attempts to free himself from the bindings...

"A couple of the students I know possess a very detailed map of Hogwarts that shows where everyone is." Hopefully, this answer, while completely truthful, will not get the Weasley twins into any trouble... Hearing the answer, Sirius paused for a second, before starting to laugh in a not-completely-sane way.

"Hahaha, guess, our little map wasn't as lost in the Filch's office as we thought! I'll have to meet with these new Marauders after this whole mess is cleared up!" This wasn't the reaction that Harry was expecting. "But we're getting sidetracked here." Mr. Black continued as he calmed down a bit from his laughter. "Yes, this _rat_ is indeed Peter Pettigrew in his animagus form. And this little bastard is the reason you don't live with your parents, Harry... Though I myself can be blamed for their deaths almost as much." The young lord Potter – still tied up well, though he already managed to loosed the magical ropes more than quite a bit – growled at the Azkaban escapee in front of him.

"Explain." It wasn't a request, it as an order, no matter how strange that would seem. And despite his apparent dementor-caused insanity, Sirius followed it.

"Um..." He paused, not sure, where he should start his explanation. "Well, as you should know, at time of your birth You-know-who was terrorizing magical Britain, and your parents, along with many other good wizards and witches were fighting against him. And, because they were quite good at it, they were near the top of his to-kill list, so when you were born, James and Lily had to go into a hiding... At first it was alright with the wards they already had, but as the time progressed, the Dark lord was getting more and more power, and by the time you were one, the existing wards around the cottage in the Godric's Hollow were no longer enough to keep you three safe." Harry was looking pointedly at Sirius, waiting for the man to confess what part in his parents' deaths he had played. "So Dumbledore proposed the idea of using _**Fidelus**_ charm to hide them... You know what it is, right?"

"Yes, continue." The young Potter said as he sent Mr. Black his glare... Meanwhile he was finishing working on the ropes; a minute or two and he will be able to free himself. What would happen after that largely depended on what Sirius had to say.

"Well, anyway, since I was the best friend of your father, I was the prime candidate for being the secret keeper for them. But with how many people knew about how close friends we were, I was kind of obvious, so, instead, I suggested that they choose another secret keeper, while I will act as a decoy... They didn't want it to be like that, but after hours upon hours of arguing, I managed to convince them to switch the secret keeper's role on to Peter... We didn't knew that the bastardy _rat_ was a Death Eater... In a way it was me, who killed you parents, Harry." Sirius said with a sob. "What kind of godfather I am if I couldn't even let my godson have his parents with him!.." This declaration made the green-eyed teen pause for a bit in his attempts to free himself:

Sure, even according to him himself, Sirius was indirectly at fault for his parents' deaths, but... the man didn't really knew that the secret keeper he made them choose was an enemy, so faulting him... Well, not enough vigilance had being paid to safety, but was it really Black's fault? Harry didn't know... And, of course, as someone who had spent twelve years around the dementors, Sirius couldn't be called sane, so, even if it didn't make Harry any less angry with the man, he decided that, maybe, he shouldn't be just so harsh at judging him and what he was doing at the moment now. So Harry found himself in a quite unpleasant situation where he didn't really know how he should act... Meanwhile the Azkaban escapee, who stopped his self-pitying for the past mistakes, continued:

"But enough about that." He said. "We've a _rat_ to deal with." Once these words were said, Peter all but doubled his efforts to escape the cage he had been forced into. Of course it didn't work as the layers of magic were too strong for him... Opening the cage, Sirius picked the scared to death _rat_ by his tail, holding the animagus in such a way that he couldn't bite him, and pulled him out of the cage. Then the last male Black pointed the wand he had on his person – he was holding it in his other hand – at Peter and muttered something under his breath, causing a whitish-blue beam of magic hit the _rat_.

In an almost grotesque show the rodent started transforming into a human: first legs, then body, then arms and finally the head... Peter Pettigrew was a very short man, hardly taller than Harry himself was. His thin, colorless hair was unkempt and there was a large bald patch on top. He had the shrunken appearance of a plump man who has lost a lot of weight in a short time. His skin looked grubby, almost like Scabbers's fur, and something of the rat lingered around his pointed nose and his very small, watery eyes. He looked around at them all, his breathing fast and shallow, likely because he knew that he had been captured and had no way to escape now...

Peter opened his mouth to say something, but before he could say even one word, he was hit with another spell, which created shackles around his arms and legs with pretty long chains attached to the cuffs on his wrist. And before the rat animagus could do anything, Sirius tapped each of the cuffs with his wand.

"Now, I may be a bit rusty, Peter, but I still can put up anti-animagus wards for long enough to pass you to the DMLE." The Azkaban escapee said, while still pointing his wand at the rat-like man. "I'm sure they will want to listen to your fascinating story about how you sold your best friends to Voldemort to save your sorry ass." Sirius growled. Pettigrew looked around frantically, searching for anything that could save him from Black's wrath. And his eyes landed on the young Potter, who was still making an appearance of being tied, even though the rope were now loose enough for the teen to escape them in a matter of seconds.

"Harry... Harry... you look just like your father... just like him..." The green-eyed wizard was about to tell him what he thought about him – despite the strangeness of the situation, there was no doubt in Harry's mind that Peter was the one who sold his parents to Voldemort – but Sirius was faster:

"How dare you speak to Harry?" Roared Black. "How dare you face him? How dare you talk about James in front of him?" Pettigrew shrank away from the furious Azkaban escapee, but still continued shuffling towards the green-eyed teen with his hands outstretched, doing this best to ignore the glares the said teen was sending his way. "You've sold Lily and James to Voldemort!" Sirius continued, shaking with rage. "Do you deny it?" Peter burst into tears, something that was a horrible to watch scene, like an oversized, balding baby, cowering on the floor.

"Sirius, Sirius, what could I have done? The Dark Lord... you have no idea... he has weapons you can't imagine... I was scared, Sirius, I was never brave like you or James. I never meant it to happen... He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named forced me... -" Here he cried out in pain as Sirius had hit him with a rather painful and nasty jinx.

"Shut up, traitor!" The Azkaban escapee growled, while his arms were shaking like he was restraining himself from killing the man on spot. "You were his spy. You sold Lily and James to him willingly! I... I don't know what I will do with you... Be thankful that I need you alive, or I would do something that would see me back to Azkaban."

"But Sirius, old friend..." Peter pleaded, only to receive a _**silencio**_ charm to his face from Black.

"I have no desire to listen to you anymore, traitor." He said, before pointing his wand at Harry and making the ropes that had the teen 'tied up' disappear... Originally, the young Potter planned on stunning both men and then letting the DMLE operatives sort through this mess, but now the things have changed a little bit and he decided that it might be better let them both stay conscious. At very least these two will be mostly occupied with each other, and, even more, he wouldn't have exert himself to transport them to anywhere he could call the aurors from... "Now then, Harry, let's bring this bastard to Hogwarts so that Dumbledore can hand him over to the aurors." Sirius said then, while throwing him the end of one of the chains that connected to Peter's shackles. The green-eyed teen caught it.

"But I'm taking the rear." He said. "I'm still not trusting you and I'm sure as hell not trusting this _rat_." Black paused for a moment upon hearing this, but then nodded.

"Very well then, let's move." The Azkaban escapee said, picking the other chain that was attached to Wormtail's shackles and, pulling it roughly to make the said man move, headed out of the room. Harry followed them with his end of the chain in one hand and his wand, trained at the two's backs in his other. This way, at least, he had a real chance to do something to protect himself, should they decide to attack him...

**~/ *** \~**

This day didn't start well for Peter, when he discovered himself locked up in a warded cage in the Shrieking Shack – apparently whatever had attacked him yesterday was a predator. Instead it was Sirius Black in his animagus form... And it was just the beginning as a couple of hours after the noon when Sirius returned with the Potter spawn – even if the boy was knocked out, it couldn't fool Peter into thinking that the other Marauder was a dark wizard too. After that Black spilled out the truth behind what had happened on that fateful Halloween night twelve and a half years ago, while also revealing him to be a rat animagus.

And now Peter found himself shackled and led to Hogwarts and towards his doom... Forcing himself to remain as calm as it was possible in this situation, Pettigrew tried to think of anything that could let him escape from these two, but it looked like there was nothing he could do. Or was there?.. While Sirius had sealed his animagus transformation away, Peter was sure that his shackles didn't have any wards that would prevent him from disapparating on them... But could he exploit this? - both the Shrieking Shack and the Hogwarts castle grounds were under heavy anti-apparation wards. Then it hit him: while indeed both ends of the tunnel Potter and Black were going to use to bring him to Hogwarts were under those wards, the part that was under the streets of the Hogsmeade village wasn't, so he could escape from them there... Peter sighed, now he needed to think of a way to make both of his 'escorts' drop the chains they used to convoy him...

**~/ *** \~**

As Sirius was leading them through the underground tunnel leading towards the Hogwarts grounds, Harry noticed something that made him uneasy: Peter Pettigrew stopped doing his best to slow down his 'escorts' and, instead, was actually catching up with Black... And the green-eyed teen didn't have to wonder what caused the rat animagus to behave like this for long... Finally piecing his plan together, the young Potter shouted to warn Sirius, who seemed to be completely unaware of what was happening behind him, but it was too late:

Peter turned around sharply, while pulling the chain that connected him with the Azkaban escapee as hard as he could, and Sirius, who wasn't expecting this, let his end of the chain go. As soon as this happened, Pettigrew dashed towards Harry, who was actually ready to unleash the power of his implanted eye upon the traitorous rat... But as Peter was actually keeping his eyes shut for some reason, and Sirius was in danger of being petrified as well, the young Potter hesitated with uncovering his basilisk eye. So, Pettigrew managed to close on him and delivered a strong hit with his shoulder to the teen who had no chance to dodge this attack in the narrow tunnel. This caused the green-eyed youngster to drop his end of the chain as well and Peter, pulling the chains closer to him so that neither of his escorts could tag along, disapparated with a resounding crack.

"Fuck!" Sirius swore as his chance for easy freedom disappeared pretty much right through his fingers. Of course, if he was to be given a trial, the truth would be uncovered, but knowing how corrupted the Ministry of Magic was, it was likely that he would be given a dementor's kiss right away...

Still, it looked like Peter's assault managed to harm Harry quite a bit, and having learned something from his past mistakes, Black decided that bringing his godson to a healer was more important than starting a new hunt after the escaped rat animagus. So, immobilizing the green-eyed teen in case he had some bones broken, Sirius continued walking down the tunnel while levitating Harry just behind himself.

**~/ *** \~**

Unfortunately for the Azkaban escapee, the disappearance of the young Potter from the Hogwarts grounds, even if the boy himself had lost his status of a celebrity, didn't go unnoticed. And when a student of Hogwarts disappears, things tend to get ugly for the one who is behind it. Thus, when Sirius and immobilized Harry emerged from the hole among the roots of the Whomping willow, they were 'greeted' by an assembly of the school professors and several aurors led by Madam Bones personally.

Sirius wasn't given a chance to say even a single word before a volley of spell him him. And while most of these spells were relatively harmless stunners, some people – like Severus Snape – used much darker magics to subdue the Azkaban escapee... Too bad, some of the casters were a bit overzealous and continued sending spells even after the first valley had connected with the intended target. Thus, because Sirius was no longer shielding Harry with his body, some of the magics hit the green-eyed teen as well, dealing enough damage to knock him unconscious as well...

* * *

That's all, folks!  
Leave me a **review**.


	51. One's own life

Here's the newest chapter for the "_**Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord**_", enjoy!  
I'm really sorry for this delay, but I had some quite more important things to do - namely, my scientific adviser wanted my work published, so I was stuck editing it (which is tiresome and kills any inspiration I might have had). That, and I finally got my hands on **Diablo 3**, which isn't really helping with writing fanfiction stories either.  
Also, as I really need to catch up with my "_**Naruto**_" stories, this one will be put on hold for about one month.

*** Review response**:  
**Naginator**, there's Amelia Bones there. She'll resolve this.  
**Impstar**, **Lord Xantos A. Fowl**, **ChaosTheVoid**, **Slytherin Studios**, **alichi**, **The Swordslinger**, **Nanashi113**, **PenNam**, **Penny is wise**, **Zarosian Chaos**, **ElementalMaster16**, **coopjk**, **animeman12**, **nopparitari**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
**Zorobak**, **McCabeRz**, **Joe Lawyer**, ... what can I say? Author needed it like this.  
**Awsomeness7**, as far as I remember, it was never mentioned that apparation requires wand. Even wikia says nothing about that. The book (6th one) doesn't clear this up as well. From my perspective, it's a wandless magic.

Also, everyone, thanks for 1000 reviews you've given me for this story!

*** Poll**: so far 86% want to see Harry/Violet spin-off lemon oneshot. But the poll will be active for another week, so...

* * *

*** Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "_**Harry Potter**_" and its characters in any shape or form.

"human speech"  
"_wraith speech_"  
'_human thoughts_'  
"**powered speech / true prophecies by the seer**"  
"_**spells / parseltongue**_"

* * *

_This chapter is not beta-read yet._

* * *

**chapter 51: One's own life**

As it was expected, madam Bones was far from happy when she finally saw that some of the spells intended for Black had connected with Harry instead. But as no one was brave enough to step forward and take the blame, nor there was time to conduct an investigation to find out who was at fault, the director of the DMLE had to assume that it was her subordinates, and so she'll have to use the department's funds to pay a compensation to Potter for this incident...

At the moment, though, Amelia Bones had more important thing to worry about. Namely, she needed to organize a trial for Sirius Black and do it quietly – she was quite sure that there were people with strong connections in the Ministry that would rather permanently silence the Azkaban escapee than suffer from anything that can be uncovered during his trial.

And while the aurors she had with her were the ones who knew to keep their mouth shut when she told them to, Amelia couldn't really prevent the Hogwarts professors from spreading the news about Black being captured. And to make it all worse, Severus Snape was a known associate of one of the '_imperiosed_' Death Eaters. So the chances were Lucius Malfoy will know about what had happened today at Hogwarts before dinner... Madam Bones shook her head. No, even if it meant that she will have to stand guard there herself, she would not let the blond man – or any other Death Eater that managed to bribe his way out of Azkaban – anywhere near the holding cell where Black will be awaiting his trial.

**~/ *** \~**

Since madam Pomfrey decided that it would be better if Harry wakes up from the spells he had been hit with on his own, the green-eyed teen was allowed to sleep for the rest of the evening and through the night in the hospital wing. Meanwhile, Albus Dumbledore informed the student body that Sirius Black made another attempt to infiltrate the castle, this time using one of the students as a 'hostage', but, despite this, he was stopped before he could reach the doors.

So, when the young Potter woke up early in the next morning, he once again found himself in the center of everyone's attention. Something that was far from happy with, especially with the amount of quite outrageous rumors, created by the gossipers yesterday evening, running around the castle. But as there was little that the green-eyed wizard could do to stop these rumors, he did his best to ignore them, while trying to concentrate on his studies as he needed to catch up with his homework – after all, yesterday he didn't complete any he had planned to do...

Still, thinking back on what had happened yesterday in the Shrieking Shack and the secret tunnel that connected it with the Hogwarts grounds, Harry wasn't sure, whether it was good that didn't use his implanted eye on Pettigrew or not. On one hand, his hesitation allowed the man who had betrayed his parents and framed his godfather escape the justice once again, but on the other... Harry wasn't sure he wanted to answer questions about how Wormtail became petrified – no student at all, and definitely not a third year, was supposed to know such 'dark magics'. And who knows, what those Ministry dogs would do, once his implanted eye was uncovered. The young Potter sure as hell didn't want to lose his right eye for the second time...

And thinking about his eye even further, the dark-haired teen got an inspiration for another approach to his research into the ways to seal Voldemort's soul away. So far he was only looking into spells or rituals that could do this, but none of those were what he wanted as their 'price' was too high – he either needed months of preparations or he needed to sacrifice a soul, often his own, in the process... But his basilisk eye made him realize that he completely forgot that there might exist some tools that could seal souls. Sure, most likely those would be some heroic weapons or something, which he will never be allowed to touch, much less use, but who knows...

Unfortunately, with the end of the school year exams so close, professors were giving so much homework that Harry had to postpone looking into soul-sealing artifacts in favor of writing those boring and not really useful essays he had been assigned. And getting sidetracked by some other interesting magics he found in the old tomes wasn't exactly helping him with this research either.

**~/ *** \~**

The 'Daily Prophet' that came out on the Monday morning had quite an effect on everyone who read it: inside there was a transcript of Sirius Black's trial, which was held during the extraordinary Wizengamot session the day before. According to what was revealed during this trial, Mr. Black was innocent of both crimes – betraying Potters to the Dark Lord and killing Peter Pettigrew – he was accused of. This already was quite enough to cause a major uproar in the magical Britain, but it was a mere half of what was revealed during this trial.

Even greater effect had Black's revelations about Pettigrew. Apparently, the man was still alive. And he also was the Death Eater that sold Potters to Voldemort. Of course, the 'Daily Prophet' correspondent, like many others, questioned, whether Sirius Black could be trusted at all, seeing that he likely was insane after spending a good dozen of years in Azkaban, but since the man bore no Dark Lord's mark himself, and was under the effects of _veritaserum_, it just might have been truth...

Still, the correspondent continued, as Sirius Black turned out to be innocent of the crimes he was accused of, the Ministry now had to pay him one hell of a compensation for the years he had spent in prison that was often called 'Hell on Earth', as well as for the slander of his good name. The exact amount of this compensation remained unannounced at the moment, though. Also, the Ministry had to do its best to smoothly re-integrate Mr. Black into the society, and this process, according to what the 'Daily Prophet's correspondent learned, would start with three-weeks-long mandatory stay in St. Mungo's hospital's mental ward, where the best medi-wizards will make sure that Sirius Black was as sane as it was possible.

**~/ *** \~**

The next couple of weeks flew by without anything really noteworthy happening in the castle. Even the exams that the young Potter and the other third-years were facing were actually anything really outrageously-difficult, at least for Harry and his friends. But that might have been because Hermione insisted that they revised the subjects at any free time they had...

Still, despite his bushy-haired friend bossing over him, the green-eyed wizard managed to do some more research into the ways to finally defeat Voldemort. Unfortunately for him, so far he still had no luck as while artifacts capable of sealing souls away really did exist in the past, all of them seemed to be lost in the sands of time. Or, their effect was easily reversible. Harry, though, wasn't about to give up on this idea just yet and continued his searches.

Also, while he did spend most of his time researching the aforementioned artifacts, he did try to continue with his medical studies as well, and the Room of Requirement helped him greatly there by providing him with several huge tomes of magic that were written hundreds of years ago and by some of the greatest wizards and witches of that era.

* * *

As was expected, the 'Daily Prophet' made a huge article about Sirius Black being released from st. Mungo's hospital, which was quite surprising, considering that neither the man himself nor the ministry officials that accompanied him gave any interviews. Oh well, magic can do stranger things that turning an event that would take a single line to describe into a whole slew of text...

And since there was no interview given, everybody was making wild guesses about what Mr. Black was going to do now. Even the infamous Hogwarts rumor mill, which was normally detached from anything happening outside the castle walls, was running several ideas about what the innocent Azkaban ex-prisoner was about to do. And because now pretty much everyone knew that Harry was Mr. Black's godson, many believed that the man will show up at Hogwarts sooner or later.

* * *

And this theory was proven correct to the young Potter a couple of days later when, about half an hour before dinner a nervous first year from Hufflepuff informed him that someone wanted to talk to him in one of the classrooms on the first floor. Sighing, the dark-haired wizard closed the book he was reading for his potions assignment and told his friends that were with him that he will be alright, before leaving the library.

Indeed, in that normally-unused classroom one Sirius Black, now clean, shaved and appearing to be much saner than before, was waiting for him, along with professor McGonnagal. And once Harry was sitting in the chair that was brought there for him, the Scot witch nodded to Sirius and left the classroom to give them some privacy... For the next some twenty seconds there was an uneasy silence in the room as neither of the two men in it knew what to say. Eventually, Mr. Black spoke:

"Um... Harry, nice to finally meet you... without anything ...troublesome hanging over our heads." The young Potter eyed the man in front of him for a couple of seconds, before nodding in agreement.

"Yeah." And there again was silence. And it was broken by Sirius this time as well

"Say, Harry,.. I know that I was a terrible godfather and did really nothing for your upbringing, but..." The younger wizard nodded – whether intentionally or not, the man in front of him had completely failed at being a good godfather. "Can you tell me how you grew up? Dumbledore said that he would place you with Lily's family and that you would be safe there... But from what I remember they ...weren't the best people to raise you." Harry nodded, complying with this request.

"Yes, Dumbledore had placed me with the Dursley family. And you're right, they are far too 'normal' to raise a magical child up properly. But, all in all, it could have been worse, and let's leave it at this." The green-eyed teen replied, making the older man sigh and once again chastise himself in his mind for going after Peter that night.

"Hm... Now that I'm free, do you want to live with me instead? With the money the Ministry gave me, I can buy us a really nice house in some place with nice beaches with pretty girls there..." Sirius said with somewhat dreamy expression on his face... Maybe he should spent some more time around mental healers. Or was this 'normal' for him? God help his children if he ever will have any, if it was the later... The young Potter shook his head.

"Thank you, but I'm emancipated already and so can and do live at Potter properties." He said. "And I really like it there, so, you don't have to do anything like that." Hopefully, this was gentle enough not to offend Sirius... And apparently it was as the man nodded after a couple of seconds.

"Oh well... And... I can't help but notice your eye-patch. Can you tell me how this had happened to you? It's such a shame – Lily had so beautiful eyes, and you definitely had inherited them." Harry sighed: Sirius was asking him questions about the things he was not really comfortable with giving out. But the man was his godfather, no matter how terrible he had been at this so far, so...

"Ah, this,.. You might have heard about the Chamber of Secrets being opened last year... Well, I ended up in the middle of the mess and ran into the beast. It was put down, of course, and I got my compensation for my loss." This was all that Harry was willing to divulge at the moment.

"Well, at least this makes you a bad boy and birdies just love those, don't they?" Sirius asked, making the green-eyed teen sigh. Either they released him from the mental ward too soon, this was Mr. Black's natural level of (in)sanity. "Speaking of the birdies, Harry." The grimm animagus continued. "While I'm happy to see that you're enjoying the company of your Gryffindor ladies, I can't help but be concerned that you also seem to be quite close with those slimy Death Eaters' spawns form Slytherin." The young Potter sent the man in front of him a glare that would make lesser men run away screaming – no one dared to badmouth his friends in front of him. "They will only betray you and..." This was where he got interrupted.

"They are my _friends_, so do not badmouth them." Harry, doing his best not to lash out at the man, said in an icy tone, while oppressing his godfather with a glare that could only be compared to professor McGonnagal's when the Scot witch was extremely angry with someone... Somehow, though, this wasn't affecting Sirius too much as he tried back-talking:

"But..."

"As I said, Mr. Black, I'm emancipated. I'm the current lord Potter and a legal adult. Even if you are my godfather, you have no legal power over me, so do not try to push your views of the world onto me. This is my life and my choices. And if you are not comfortable with them, then it might be better if we go separate ways from there." The green-eyed teen said standing up. "Have a nice evening, Mr. Black. Our meeting ends there." And without another word Harry left the room, heading to the kitchens for some dinner as he didn't feel like going to the Great hall right now...

* * *

The next morning for Harry passed quietly, and while Hermione and Neville could see that he still was in a bad mood, they pretty much left him alone, as they did not want to take a risk of asking what was bothering him so much and making it all even worse.

But as the trio, along with the other Gryffindor and Ravenclaw students were on their way to the Great hall for some lunch, the young Potter noticed Draconica waiting for him near one of the 'hidden' passages that were thick as black berries in Hogwarts. Deciding that the blond girl had something important that she wanted to tell him, he told his friends to continue to the Great hall without him and split form them, going to where his Slytherin friend was waiting for him. Draconica gave him the lightest of smiles, before nodding him to follow deeper into the 'secret' passage, where they were less likely to be overheard...

"So?.." Harry asked, once they were definitely alone. The blond girl in front of him didn't reply right away and, actually, lowered her eyes while acting shier than normal. Finally, she replied:

"Yesterday, when you had that meeting with Sirius Black... You got quite loud and... I couldn't help but overhear you a bit and... Thank you for defending me. And..." Draconica said quietly. And then, completely unexpectedly for the dark-haired wizard, she kissed him. On his lips. Leaving him quite stunned with the seeming suddenness of their first kiss, so that he didn't even respond to it right away. But when he finally did...

If he was to compare this with the kisses he had shared with Katie, Draconica's was gentler and even more loving; he could almost physically feel what the blonde witch felt towards him, and it spread so much warmth throughout his being that he was sure that now he will be able to cast a corporeal patronus even if the midst of dementor swarm.  
But before long they had to break their kiss, and for a couple of seconds the two of them just stood there looking into each others eyes. Then their minds finally caught up with what had just happened and they looked away, both blushing madly...

**~/ *** \~**

This encounter with Draconica gave Harry new strength for his researches and before long he finally succeeded in finding pretty much what he was looking for. An artifact that will help him solve the Voldemort problem, and the scroll where he read about it even had an approximate location in which the said artifact could be found. And the simple fact that it as on the other end of the Earth didn't really seem to be much of a problem for the young Potter, so he owled to Violet asking her to get the paperwork he will need for this, as well as to book the international portkey for him. This summer, Harry thought, he _will_ have what he needed to finally end Voldemort.  
Aside from this quite huge, but still very private, success of his, the dark-haired wizard passed his end of the school year examinations will all 'Exceeds expectations' and 'Outstanding', something that he, to be honest, did not really care about that much. Which seemed to irritate Hermione to no end, but with everything he needed to plan for this summer, Harry didn't care about this as well...

**~/ *** \~**

As the Hogwarts students were making their way back to their homes, one Bertha Jorkins, being on her holiday in Albania, entered a pub in some remote village. She wasn't actually sure why she was in this village, but it was dinner time and she was hungry... The pub was quite packed with people, so Bertha ended up sitting next to a rat-like man she should have recognized, had her memory being like it used to be... And after a couple of pints of some local beverage, Bertha revealed it to this man that she was the Department of Magical Sports and Games and that she was among those who organized the revived Triwizard tournament...

This was the last time anyone on the right side of the law saw the bubbly witch.

* * *

That's all, folks!  
Leave me a **review**.


	52. Quidditch World Cup Finals

Here's the newest chapter for the "_**Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord**_", enjoy!

*** Review response**:  
**Naginator**, **reven228**, **jafr86**, **shugokage**, **ElementalMaster16**, **Lord Xantos A. Fowl**, **SimFlyer**, **1337box**, **Penny is wise**, **Awsomeness7**, **k9angel**, **JPElles**, **nopparitari**, **Pedro Boncompagni**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
**The Swordslinger**, dunno. I think it was alright, though you might be right about it.  
**Zarosian Chaos**, I have no such plans.  
**mliyanagamage**, yes, 'serpent lord' part will be in the focus this fourth year. But there also will be NO fifth year covered in this story. It ends at the end of Harry's fourth year.  
**sasha1213**, спасибо, и, скажу вот что, фанфик будет закончен (рано или поздно) несмотря ни на что.  
**Toby860**, there will be such contract. Do you think I gave Harry 'pureblood-style' name somewhere in his first year just for fun?

As per the results of the poll, I'll have Harry/Violet oneshot written and published here in a week or two**  
**

* * *

*** Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "_**Harry Potter**_" and its characters in any shape or form.

"human speech"  
"_wraith speech_"  
'_human thoughts_'  
"**powered speech / true prophecies by the seer**"  
"_**spells / parseltongue**_"

* * *

_This chapter is not beta-read yet._

* * *

**chapter 52: Quidditch World Cup Finals**

Great, powerful and fearsome lord Voldemort – well, he was that once in the past, and he soon will be that again – sat in his homunculus body in an armchair in the guest room of the Riddle manor reading the latest edition of the 'Daily Prophet'. And his ugly temporary body was furrowing its brows as it read about Ronald Weasley, the chosen one of the Great Britain, attending the Ministry-sponsored Summer Solstice ball.

"Wormtail!" The Dark Lord called his only minion he had at the moment. "Care to explain it, why everyone is thinking that the blood-traitor like Weasley can have power to stop me?" Of course, he should have phrased it better, for Potters too were blood-traitors in his mind, but...

"I'm n-not sure, Master." The sorry excuse of a wizard that Wormtail was replied from the other end of the room. "But on day about a year ago Dumbledore suddenly proclaimed that it will be him, and not the Potter, who will end you." This made lord Voldemort think.

"I see. And what can you tell me about this Weasley brat, Wormtail?" He asked then. His minion was silent for several long seconds – almost long enough to get crucio-ed for failing to answer his master – before he finally replied:

"Even though the headmaster is teaching him privately at least once a week, the boy shows little promise of being even half as strong as you, master. I lived with him for years, and he never showed any signs of either great magical power, or great understanding of the magic taught at Hogwarts. He is also quite lazy and seems to have only food and quidditch on his mind." Peter Pettigrew said. "His only chance of beating you, master, will be an eating competition, where the loser loses his magic." Of course, lord Voldemort dismissed this danger outright.

"Very well, Wormtail. And what can you tell me about Potter?" The self-proclaimed greatest Dark Lord in the history of magical Great Britain asked: after all, he had already faced the brat twice, and both time the insufferable boy not only survived the encounters, but somehow also managed to destroy his plans.

"He is doing significantly better academically, then Ronald Weasley. And he also seem to be displaying greater levels of magical power as well." Peter stopped there for a moment, before adding the next part in fear of being put under the cruciatus curse: "But he is still no where near as powerful as you are, master." Sighing happily at avoiding being cursed, Wormtail continued. "He also seem to have a group of associates that has members of all four Hogwarts houses." This made lord Voldemort rather unhappy: some of the students seemed to be forgetting that the members of the great and noble house Slytherin did not associate with the riffraff from Gryffindor. But getting his new body held greater importance to Voldemort than punishing stupid brats for their misdeeds, so he decided to let them be for now.

"I see..." What once was Tom Riddle said thoughtfully. "In that case, I shall have Potter as the ingredient for my rebirth, like I originally planned. But this brings in another problem: with you there to attend me, Wormtail, I have no one else, who could have the brat delivered to me, at the moment..." The later part was said as if just thinking aloud.

"If I may be so bold, master?" Peter Pettigrew spoke. "You saw that Barty Crouch Jr. is still alive from that Jorkins witch's memories. Knowing what position his father holds at the Ministry at the moment, that man will definitely be at the Quidditch World Cup finals this next month. This is when we can break Junior free." Voldemort thought about this for a second.

"This is a surprisingly sound suggestion, Wormtail." The said man beamed with pride. "But what if Junior is brought to the finals instead?" Peter was silent for some time, before finally answering:

"Well, then he will have to be under an invisibility cloak, so getting him away from his father will be even easier. And I doubt that with how big that quidditch stadium is, they'll put up some decent anti-animagus ward. I'll just slip in, get junior and we will scape back there." Voldemort nodded.

"Very well, Wormtail." He said. "I will trust you to accomplish this mission. But I will insist that under no condition you are to get caught. Escape without junior if they see you." Peter nodded.

"I will do that, master."

**~/ *** \~**

It now was the middle of the second week of August, and one Harry Potter, finally back to England, was walking through the Diagon alley. And, boy, did he change over the summer. Most noticeable change in him, of course, was the fact that neither the glasses nor the eye-patch could be seen on his face anymore. Instead, he now wore contact lenses. A mostly conventional one for his left eye, and a magic-blocking one for his implanted right one. The later one even allowed him to activated his petrifying glare with just a thought while also making the basilisk's eye appear more or less like a normal human one... Of course, both lenses were enchanted so that he would never need to take them out, nor anything short of some really powerful spell could damage them.

Other than that, the young Potter had gained some tan over the summer, as well as his body becoming a bit more wiry from the 'adventures' he had had. The said 'adventures' were also the reason for some really minor and already fading cut-scars he had on the visible parts of his body. Finally, he now was wearing what could be called a necklace: a thin, long and slightly-curved black rod on a long silvery chain made from thousands upon thousands of tiny links. And no matter what one may think, Harry was not wearing it for its looks: it had by far more important role in his future than being a pretty accessory.

And, more importantly, the green-eyed wizards wasn't out there to show himself off – though he didn't terribly mind the glances that the girls around his age were stealing in his direction – no, he had an appointment with his barrister in fifteen minutes... Of course, Violet's latest client took a bit more time than that to finish his business, but as Harry was in no hurry, he didn't mind this much.

"Uh?.. Lord Potter? Welcome back." The blond witch said, once she recognized him a couple of seconds after he had entered her office. Readjusting her glasses, she pulled Harry's rather thick file from the small and well-organized stack of files that was there on her table.

"Thank you, and nice to see you again, miss Bridget." The dark-haired wizard replied, taking his seat across the table from her. "To the business then?" He asked, and once Violet nodded, he continued. "Can you give me a brief summary of the important things that had happened while I was abroad. I will read about the rest from your and Herr Schmidt's reports later." The blond witch nodded again.

"Alright." She said. "If you have received Herr Schmidt's missive, Wizengamot agreed to dump organizing the tasks of the Triwizard tournament onto the Department of Magical Sports and Games, as well as onto the administrations of the schools involved in this tournament." Well, Harry thought, this might have been for the better as this way he will have no spoilers for the contests... "Aside from that, the political arena was rather quiet, which let me concentrate on the other tasks you've given to me. With madam Longbottom's help, I've managed to uncover some blackmail on Albus Dumbledore. Nothing incriminating, but should this become public knowledge, it will be very hard for him to keep his positions." Violet said as she pulled quite a few pages from Harry's file. "Would you like me to brief you on these findings?" The green-eyed wizard shook his head.

"No, I'd like study them later. Please, owl them to me." The blonde nodded, returning the pages back into the file. "Now then, if there is nothing else, I'd like to move onto the second reason for my visit today." Another nod. "As you no doubt know, this year Hogwarts happens to host the resurrected Triwizard tournament." Harry said with a chuckle. "And I think that you are also more or less aware of how bad my luck is sometimes. Thus, I'm afraid, something may happen that will leave me in an immediate need of your legal help. And I do not think that I will have enough time to wait for an owl to bring my request here, nor I'm sure that I will have a quick access to a floo to make a call. Is there any other way I can contact you quickly?" Violet thought about this for several seconds before replying.

"Have you ever heard about Protean charm, lord Potter?" The dark-haired teen nodded in response. From the memories he had absorbed from Voldemort he knew that the infamous dark mark was partially built around it. But he wasn't about to unveil this piece of knowledge.

"I know about it, though I've never cast it myself." He replied smoothly.

"Very well then." The witch said, before looking around her office in search for something she could use for the charm. Finally, finding nothing suitable, she just transfigured two sheets of paper into pins with glass balls on one of their ends. A complicated series of wand movements later, the pins were connected through the charm. Taking one of the pins, and adding some more charms onto it, Violet attached it to the inner side of her business suit. Harry, though, still had his pin in his hands. "Should you find yourself in the immediate need of the firm's assistance, breaker the ball off the pin, and I will know about it. And I hope that the charm trigger is good enough for your call not to happen accidentally..." She trailed off, before adding: "Just remember that we charge one hundred and fifty percents during non-standard working hours." The young Potter just nodded in response.

"Shall I provide you with a portkey that will drop you before the Hogwarts' front doors then?" He asked then. Violet nodded.

"That would be most helpful."

**~/ *** \~**

Finally it was time for the most expected magical event of that summer in Great Britain. It was time for the quidditch world cup finals. Too bad that the English team wasn't there to compete for the trophy, but, oh well... And, Harry mused, being one of the lords of Wizengamot did come with great advantages: for one, unlike many who had to spend up to three weeks camping not far from the stadium, he was allowed to arrive at any time he wanted, provided he used an apparation point for the Ministry officials.

The young Potter didn't hesitate to use this right of his, and arrived to the point about one hour before the game was supposed to start. From there he proceeded straight to the stadium and to his seat there, paying little to no attention to the various quidditch merchandize sold here and there. He didn't even really stop to admire the impressive in its giantism golden structure that the stadium was... And, apparently, he was right in not doing that, as with the amount of people crowding around the entrances and inside the stadium, it took him quite some time to get to balcony where his seat was. Actually, he arrived there with just a couple of minutes to spare.

Shaking his head at his luck of having to sit next to an old pudgy wizard who likely hadn't even heard about personal hygiene, Harry discretely cast several charms to make it possible for himself to endure sitting in this arrangement for the duration of the game. That done, he took a pair of omniculars he had bought previously and looked around through them. Almost across the stadium from his seat and all the way up he could see the Minister's box and some interesting people there:

In the very center there sat Cornelius Fudge. On his right there was Bulgarian minister for Magic, and on his left sat the leader of Irish Magical government – Harry didn't remember what was the right name for that position. The rest of the seats on the left side of the box were occupied by Mr. Arthur Weasley and all seven of his children. The other end of the box had the four members of the Malfoy family sitting in the front row and some ministry officials Harry didn't know in the second. There also was a couple of empty seats in the box, but he had no idea whose those may be...

The green-eyed teen didn't have much time for gazing at his Slytherin year-mate, though, as Ludo Bagman, who was commenting the match, entered the box and not a minute later Bulgarian mascots were announced. Those were about an hundred or so blonde women that were inhumanly beautiful.

'_Veela._' The young lord Potter thought. A moment later all of his thoughts were pushed out of his mind as the veela released their allure, bathing entire stadium in it. And if that wasn't enough, they started dancing, quite seductively so... Thankfully, Harry's mental defenses were good enough to tune the effects of allure down somewhat, so he managed refrain from doing something stupid in hopes of getting the beauties' attention. Even more thankfully, the old wizard next to him was too old to be really affected by the allure in any way, or, the dark-haired teen was afraid, he'd need more than air-freshening charms around himself...

Once the veela finished dancing and lined along the Bulgarian side of the pitch, Irish mascots were announced. And so, a great number of leprechauns filled the air above the stadium. These little men may not possess any allure, but the rain of fake gold they created at the end of their short show had affected the public just as strongly.

After the leprechauns were finished with their performance, it was time for the teams to make their appearance. Ludo Bagman named all seven of players of the Bulgarian team in mostly red robes that entered the pitch. Then the match commentator did the same for the Irish team dressed in green and, finally, for the referee. And once the balls were released, the match started...

Just a few minutes into the game it became painfully obvious that if everyone played fair, Bulgarian chasers were greatly outmatched by their Irish counterparts. And so the 'red' team resorted to using some dirty tactics to give their star seeker a chance to catch the snitch before it was too late and their 'green' opponents had score more than a hundred and a half points over them. This, of course, earned Bulgarians quite a few penalties towards their hoops, but their keeper did a decent job of catching those, so the difference in score wasn't growing too much because of that.

After an hour and a half, though, Ireland was sixteen goals ahead, and it looked like the Bulgarian team had no real chances of winning anymore. The only thing they could do to avoid a humiliating defeat was getting the snitch right about now... A minute passed and suddenly both seekers started diving after something. Lynch, who was on the Irish team, was closer to the snitch and so he had a pretty good head-start, but his Bulgarian counterpart, Krum, appeared to be faster on the broom, so by the time the two got close to the ground, they were in a line. And then Lynch crashed into the ground for the second time this match, while Krum was slowly rising into the air with a golden snitch held tightly in his hand.

Since the match was over, Harry saw no reason to spend any more time there, so he started making his way out of the stadium before those became too crowded with other leaving wizards and witches... Again, using his privileges that came with him being the lord Potter, he headed to the ministry officials' apparation point and, once he was there, he disappeared towards his summer house in Birling gap.

**~/ *** \~**

The next morning Harry was having his breakfast when an owl carrying his copy of the 'Daily Prophet' arrived. Paying five knuts to the bird, he took the newspaper and opened it. And froze. Right there on the front page there was huge photo of the Voldemort's dark mark glowing pale green in the night sky with the golden quidditch stadium somewhere in the background.

Shaking his head, the young Potter turned the page and started reading the article about the 'fun' he had missed yesterday... According to the ministry, a group of about twelve unidentified wizards masquerading as Death Eaters had attacked the camping grounds, setting random tents on fire all while juggling some muggles with their wands. Thankfully, no one – save for the poor muggles – was hurt, but the pseudo-Death Eaters got away before the aurors could apprehend them... Some people said that the masquerading wizards left very abruptly when the dark mark was cast, which caused some to speculate that it was a creation of someone not from their group...

Harry stopped reading the article there: the 'Death Eaters' that had attacked the camps were not there on the orders of Voldemort, and, instead, most likely, were just some pure-blood bigots that wanted to get into the newspapers by causing property damage and creating mayhem. This also meant that the undead Dark Tosser didn't have a lot if any of his followers with him, and, possibly, he wasn't even reincarnated yet, so it gave the Harry some more time prepare for their battle...

**~/ *** \~**

Meanwhile, in Little Hangleton three wizards – well, two wizards and one wraith inhabiting a homunculus body – were busy planning the said wraith revival. More accurately, they were trying to think of a way to get the 'blood of an enemy' to where the revival ritual will be held, as lord Voldemort absolutely refused to use anyone but Harry Potter for this... Finally, around noon, the once fearsome dark lord thought up a solution:

"How would you like to spend a year at Hogwarts, Barty?" He asked in a way that made it clear that refusal was not an option.

* * *

That's all, folks!  
Leave me a **review**.


	53. Fourth year begins

Here's the newest chapter for the "_**Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord**_", enjoy!

*** Review response**:  
**mliyanagamage**, **jafr86**, **Nanashi113**, **Naginator**, **Ayshun Dragon**, **The Swordslinger**, **ElementalMaster16**, **god of all**, **Kenpachi813**, **shugokage**, **Lord Xantos A. Fowl**, **raw666**, **dangerverse**, **Zarosian Chaos**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
**Awsomeness7**, thanks.  
**Penny is wise**, I'll think about this (still have a couple of chapter - not counting this one - before I get to the tournament.  
**JPElles**, 5 champion in the Triwizard tournament, isn't this too much?

Sorry for the delay, I tried to finish the Harry/Violet one-shot for today as well, but I ran into the writers block: I have the intro and the lemon itself, but I can't find a way to tie them together without it turning into a pure PWP. I want to have at least some plot there.

* * *

*** Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "_**Harry Potter**_" and its characters in any shape or form.

"human speech"  
"_wraith speech_"  
'_human thoughts_'  
"**powered speech / true prophecies by the seer**"  
"_**spells / parseltongue**_"

* * *

_This chapter is not beta-read yet._

* * *

**chapter 53: Fourth year begins**

The rest of the summer passed quietly for Harry. He did some catching up with his friends, though he dared not to reveal the real reason of why he had been gone abroad to them. So, he called his two months searches for an ancient artifact just a trip, and, even if Neville or Hermione suspected something, they kept quiet about it... The young Potter also did the last of his shopping for the upcoming school year: they was requested to have dress robes – no doubt because of the Triwizard tournament – and it was quite a task to find something that was more robes than a dress...

**~/ *** \~**

On the morning of September the first Harry woke up early as always. So, he had his breakfast and without any hurry double-checked that he had everything he'd need this year packed in his trunk, before apparating to the platform 9¾, arriving there well before the rush of Hogwarts students. This allowed him to claim a good compartment for himself and his friends in the middle of the train, and, after putting his things on the luggage rack, he continued reading a magazine about the most recent developments in the non-magical medicine he had gotten his hands on a couple of days ago..

Hermione joined him about fifteen minutes before the train was to depart, and almost immediately the bushy-haired witch asked him about his eye. Sure, in his letters to his friends the green-eyed wizard had already explained why he no longer wore eye-patch, but still... Once the brunette's curiosity was satisfied, she started talking about how the last days of her holidays were and about what she hoped they would be taught this year and made her guesses about why they needed dress robes. Harry, of course, had a very good guess why, but he wasn't about to give away the information about the tournament just yet, so, instead, he made up a couple of rather outlandish theories about why they needed the dress robes this year.

Just as they were discussing possibility of Hogwarts playing the role of a court for some major political event – which, technically, will happen – Neville finally joined them, adding some of his own 'theories'... Though, the young Potter thought, it was quite likely that his male friend too was just hiding the fact that he knew about the Triwizard tournament taking place at Hogwarts during this school year.

Eventually, the topic was exhausted, and the three teen switched to something a bit less intriguing, like who they thought their new DADA professor would be or what spells and potions they'd be taught this year... That was when the dark-haired wizard decided that he should pay a visit to his Slytherin 'associates', so, excusing himself, he left the compartment and started looking for them... And finding his friends from the house of cunning ones didn't take Harry too long: the four girls found themselves a compartment in the very next car down the train. Politely knocking on their door, he came in.

"Good day, ladies." He greeted the girls.

"Harry!" Astoria called out loudly, almost jumping off her seat, obviously happy to see her 'hero'. The rest of the girls – Draconica, Daphne and Tracey – were more restrained in the way they greeted Harry back, but that didn't mean that they were any cold towards him... The older of the two Greengrass sisters sent her sibling a glare, silently telling the now-second-year girl that she should behave in a way becoming of someone of their social standing.

"Harry, your eye, did you get it back somehow? And did you have your eyesight fixed?" Tracey asked, as Astoria was being calmed down by her big sister. The green-eyed wizard sighed lightly: it was clear that he will be asked this question many many more times in the next couple of days. And he was already feeling annoyance rolling over inside him...

"It's an artificial eye I got while I was abroad." Harry said, while tapping his finger gently just underneath his implanted basilisk eye – now that the colored contact lens was blocking its magics, he had no reason to hide it behind the eye-patch. "And as for my eye-sight, no, it's still what it used to be. I just wear a contact lens instead of glasses now." The girls nodded, accepting his explanation.

"Well, it looks great on you, Harry." Astoria said, while the rest of the witches agreed with her in one way or other: the dark-haired wizard without any questions looked better with his both eyes and with no glasses... Once this topic was closed, the four girls returned to what they were talking about before he came. And like it was in the case with Hermione, the Slytherin ladies were making their guesses about who will be DADA professor this year, about how good he or she will be and they too were trying to find an answer to why they needed the dress robes this year.

* * *

The time flew really fast when he was talking to the girls, as Harry noted when the witch with cart full of magical candies knocked on the compartment's door. And, well, it may be a good idea for him to return back to his own compartment and to his Gryffindor friends... Still, before he left, there was one other thing that he needed to do:

"Draconica, if you don't mind, I'd like to have a couple of words with you in private." Far a second the young Potter was afraid that she will tell him 'no', but then the blond witch nodded slowly, before giving her friends a look that told that that she will be alright.

"Lead the way." The Malfoy heiress said as she took the hand Harry had offered her. Once she was standing, though, she let it go. Something that the green-eyed wizard was slightly disappointed in... The two of them left the girls' compartment and headed towards where the young Potter had seen an empty one. It was still unoccupied, so the two teens got in and, once the door was closed, Harry cast a strong locking charm and put up several privacy spells... Just as soon as he was done there, he found himself pushed lightly towards one of the settles. And once he was sitting on it, Draconica took place right besides him with their bodies touching rather intimately. "I missed you." the blonde whispered as she leaned more into him. "What did you want to talk to me about?" She asked then, suddenly being all business.

"Well, I know that there are still almost two months before that day,.." Harry began, and now the blond witch backed away from him a bit so that she could look into his eyes. "But I think that I still should ask, whether you will be alright. And, if you want, I can try making my own bid for your hand." He said with a blush now blossoming on his face. "If it wins, you'll have all the time you'll need to find your life-mate." Draconica was speechless for several seconds, before finally recovering her wits.

"Thank you, Harry." She finally said, before giving him a light kiss on his cheek. "It really means a lot to me, but... I don't think that father will be willing to wait for more than a couple of years for my new contract to be fulfilled and my marriage to be consummated." She sighed quietly, before adding: "And are you sure that he will even consider your contract? Potters aren't exactly on the list of the families he will agree to marry me into."

"You'll never know." Harry said cryptically as he shook his. He wasn't sure that it was time already to reveal himself as the new lord Slytherin to general public, or even to anyone outside Goldsaw and Violet... Draconica nodded, before giving him another light kiss, much closer to his lips this time, while also gently placing her hand on his chest.

"I really missed you this summer, Harry." She whispered into his ear. "And you were so far away, unavailable even through owls... Don't you think you should make it up to me for this?" Harry looked into her eyes, silently asking what she had in her mind. 'Nica made that quite clear when her 'free' hand started raising her skirt to remove the hindering piece of clothing that was underneath it...

**~/ *** \~**

As this year no one of any interest to the young Potter was being sorted, the dark-haired teen didn't pay much attention to the sorting hat. Though, he still noticed that the artifact somehow managed to integrate some clues about the Triwizard tournament into its song. Of course, only those that already knew about the event could interpret those clues correctly, but...

Some other interesting thing that Harry noticed were the absence of their new DADA professor at the table – though the empty chair there indicated that the man would be joining later on – and the unusually high number of the 'firsties'... No, the green-eyed wizard corrected himself, their number was more or less 'normal'; its just his year was noticeably smaller thanks to the war with Voldemort.

During both the sorting itself and the most welcomed feast that followed shortly after it, nothing of any real interest had happened. And once the feast was over, the headmaster rose from his throne-like chair to make his customary speech. First of all, the aged warlock reminded the Hogwarts students about list of banned items being posted at Filch's office, about Forbidden forest being forbidden and about the fact that only those in third year or older were allowed to visit Hogsmeade.

"And now, I would like you all to welcome back Ms. Ginerva Weasley!" Dumbledore said, gesturing towards the Gryffindor table. Damn, Harry didn't even notice the redhead until after the headmaster singled her out. And, well, Ginny looked so small and pale and frail, and she was sitting so very quietly near the end of the table... It was quite obvious that even if the healers managed to heal her body and magic alright, the psychological damage from the possession was not treated well enough. "Due to medical reasons, at the moment she will be retaking her first year, but may advance in years if she shows that she's ready for that." There were some applause, coming mostly form Gryffindor and Hufflepuff tables, but it didn't look like the redhead was even hearing them...

Before the headmaster could continue with his announcements, the doors of the Great hall were thrown open, revealing a man in a black traveler's cloak, who was leaning upon a long staff. Those who recognized him as the retired auror captain Alastor Moody were quietly informing those who didn't while the ex-auror made his way towards the professors' table, his wooden leg clacking loudly against the stone floor.

"May I introduce out new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher?" Dumbledore said. "Professor Moody." There were some applause, but the terribly-scarred man paid absolutely no attention to the not-so-warm welcome he was given and started eating his meal. And the more observant students noticed that he was drinking from his hip flask even if there was a golden goblet standing on the table right in front of him. The headmaster waited for several seconds, before continuing. "Unfortunately, it's my sad duty to inform you all that the Inter-House Quidditch Cup will not take place this year." Immediately there were cries of disagreement coming from all four houses' tables... The old warlock cleared his throat, making most of the students quiet down. "As I was saying, this is due to an event that will be starting in October, and continuing throughout the school year, taking up much of the teachers' time and energy – but I am sure you will all enjoy it immensely. I have a great pleasure in announcing that this year at Hogwarts will be hosting the Triwizard tournament!"

"What?!" Those who had heard about the tournament, but did know that another attempt to revive it was made, shouted. "You are joking!" Dumbledore's reply made some people wonder again, where he was completely sane or not: the headmaster started telling some joke he had apparently heard this summer. But he didn't get past the first sentence when professor McGonagall cleared her throat, reminding him that he should talk about the tournament.

"Where was I? Ah yes, the Triwizard Tournament..." Dumbledore continued. "Well, some of you aren't aware of what this tournament involves, so I hope that those who do know will forgive me for giving a short explanation, and allow their attention to wander freely." Here, he gave a brief – just a little over ten minutes long – lecture about the history of the tournament. He also gave a warning that because of the dangers, only those above seventeen will be allowed to try their hand at becoming Hogwarts champion – this caused quite vocal disagreements to rise from all around the Great hall, but the headmaster ignored those... Once the old warlock was finished, he told everyone that it time for everyone to go to the common rooms to get some rest.

Just Harry was about to rise from the table to follow his housemates to the Gryffindor tower, he noticed a note lying in front of him on his plate. Damn, he didn't even notice when or how it got there... Picking the piece of parchment up, the green-eyed youth read the short message that professor McGonagall sent him. In two words, his head of the house wanted to have some words with him before the curfew. Unfortunately, the note didn't specify, what about she wanted to talk. So, after telling Hermione and Neville where he will be, the young Potter headed to the transfiguration professor's office...

* * *

"Good evening, professor." Harry greeted his head of the house, when she showed up a couple of minutes later. He knew that her job of the deputy headmistress was consuming a lot of time, so he wasn't upset with a little wait. "May I ask, what did you want to talk to me about?" The dark-haired teen asked, while professor McGonagall was opening the door of her office.

"Of course, Mr. Potter." She replied, while inviting him in. Once they both were seated, she continued. "Anyway, you had everyone under the impression that you've lost your right eye a little more than a year ago in the Chamber of Secrets. Did you get an artificial one as a replacement?" Harry nodded. The Scot witch in front of him was far more perceptive than his fellow students, so he didn't feel the annoyance from having to explain his eye to her.

"Yes. I got it while I was abroad this summer. It was quite expensive and it doesn't have any special 'cool' powers like professor Moody's is rumored to, but it does look almost like a real one." The transfiguration professor nodded, accepting his explanation.

"Very well then..." Professor McGonagall made a pause. "Unfortunately, since you now have an artificial eye, due to how the Hogwarts quidditch cup rules are written, you won't be able to play on the team anymore." The green-eyed Potter nodded.

"To be honest, I was planing to leave the team anyway." He saw his head of the house ready to ask a question, and making a good guess about what this question will be, he continued: "Professor, I'm sure that you remember that I'm a lord of a Noble house." The deputy headmistress nodded. "And even though I have some great people helping me out, I can't totally rely on them forever. Sooner or later, I'll have to deal with my estate and the Wizengamot on my own, and so I shall devote a lot of my time to study politics and economics. I just don't think that between these and the normal school work I will have enough time to play quidditch as well." Professor McGonagall nodded. It was clear that she wasn't exactly happy with this, but she respected his decision.

"Alright, Mr. Potter, if there is nothing else, you may go." The deputy headmistress said: it was already close to the curfew, and she didn't want one of her Lions to get into trouble, especially on the very first day of the school year.

"Actually..." Harry replied. "Since we've started talking about quidditch... Well, there is no cup this year, but I'm quite sure that there will be one next year again." The Scot witch nodded. "Oliver Wood had graduated this past spring and the team will need a new captain. I know that normally one of the most senior players is chosen, but I ask you to choose Katie Bell over anyone else."

"May I ask why?" Professor McGonagall inquired.

"Well, me aside, everyone but her will graduate the next year, and Ms. Bell will a year after that. Do you really think that having the team go through three captains in three years will be a good thing?" He asked. The head of the Gryffindor house thought about this for a couple of seconds, before nodding.

"I see." She said. "And you really do have a point here, Mr. Potter. I will think about it." Nodding her a thank you, the young Potter continued:

"And on the related note,.. I shall speak with the rest of the team first, but, likely, we will want to book the pitch once in a while. To run the trials for the keeper and the seeker – maybe for the chasers and beaters as well – and to integrate the players into the team."

"The staff will be too focused on making sure that the tournament runs smoothly to add the school quidditch cup on top of it, but as the pitch will not be needed there until spring, I can see no reason to stop you from using it until then." Professor McGonagall replied. "And I think that giving the new players extra year to train is a good idea." Harry filed the fact about the pitch being needed for the tournament to the back of his mind, before replying:

"Alright then, I'll talk with the rest of the team and we will inform you about our decision, when we come to one." The deputy headmistress nodded. "Well... I guess this will be all for the moment..." the green-eyed wizard made another short pause. "Good night, professor."

"Good night, Mr. Potter." Professor McGonagall replied, before returning her attention to the various documents that were on her table... Harry silently backed out of her office, and once he had closed the door, he looked at his watch. It looked like he still had about ten minutes before the curfew. And as today was quite a tiresome day for him for some reason, he decided that he will call it a day as soon as he was back to the Gryffindor common room. Talking to his teammates could wait until tomorrow...

* * *

That's all, folks!  
Leave me a **review**.


	54. Reforming the team

Yes, I know, there is no excuse for being so late with this update, so I won't even try, but... Here's the newest chapter for the "_**Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord**_", enjoy!

*** Review response**:  
**magical fan18**, actually, I think, there was at least a couple of stories where the teams trained during the fourth year. But in general (and canon)... I think this can be attributed to the wizards being so bad at doing anything logical.  
**Naginator**, **ElfenSky**, **reven228**, **Zarosian Chaos**, **Lord Xantos A. Fowl**, **Penny is wise**, **The Swordslinger**, **Danget the critic**, **nopparitari**, **ElementalMaster16**, **pandora vanity**, **Artela**, **Dudtheman**, thanks for your reviews, folks!  
**JPElles**, lol, but that is something that will really suit this version of Harry.  
**death5367**, **Hichitsuki-hime**, and it still won't for quite some time. But in the end, it will be used and it will save Harry's life (most likely).  
**dragoon109**, replied via PM.  
**Guest** 8/23/12 : I can try doing fem-Fawkes, but I generally fail at writing dark Harry. Gray - maybe. But, believe me, I have enough ideas to keep me occupied for quite some time. Still, if I get any inspiration, I'll write this one (once I'm finally finished with Violet :-\ )  
**fires of orion**, I read that story, as I read others by Driftwood1965, and while I will eventually bash Ron, it won't be as much, and it will still take some time, before he's 'corrupted' by him fame to any significant degree.  
**61394**, better yet, imagine his face when he learns that lord Slytherin is no one other than Harry Potter!

* * *

*** Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "_**Harry Potter**_" and its characters in any shape or form.

"human speech"  
"_wraith speech_"  
'_human thoughts_'  
"**powered speech / true prophecies by the seer**"  
"_**spells / parseltongue**_"  
_messages_

* * *

_This chapter is not beta-read yet._

* * *

**chapter 54: Reforming the team**

_**Monday**: DADA (S) – Herbology (R) – lunch – double Potions (all) – Astronomy (all) at 11 pm._  
_**Tuesday**: free period – Transfiguration (H) – lunch – Herbology (S) – DADA (R) – Arithmancy (all)_  
_**Wednesday**: double Care for Magical Creatures (all) – lunch – Ancient Runes (all) – Charms (R)._  
_**Thursday**: Potions (S) – Charms (H) – lunch – double Transfiguration (R) – DADA (H)._  
_**Friday**: double Charms (H) – lunch – Arithmancy (all) – Herbology (R) – Ancient Runes (all)._

Sighing, Harry looked up from his timetable for this school year. No, it was a pretty good one, and he had no problems with it; other things were frustrating him. Earlier this morning, he decided to have a brief talk with his now ex-teammates about what was going on in the Gryffindor quidditch team, but it appeared that they had overslept a bit and so they arrived to the Great hall only minutes before professor McGonagall started handing out the timetables. Thus, right now the young Potter wasn't sure that he had enough time for anything more than warning the vixens and the Weasley twins that he'll want to talk to them later on today...

Oh well, there is always lunch or even dinner for that. So, with his timetable still in his hands, Harry hurried after Hermione and Neville, who already left the table and started on their way back to the Gryffindor common room.

* * *

Even though normally Charms were one of his favorite subjects, today the lesson dragged on and on for the green-eyed teen. Maybe, this was just because professor Flitwick decided that they needed entire double period for the revision of what they had studied the previous school year, but most likely this was caused by the young Potter's desire for this all to end quickly, so that he could finally tell his ex-teammates the news.

At long last, the bell, signifying the start of the lunch break, rang, and Harry, along with the rest of the Lion and Badger fourth years headed to the Great hall... Apparently, though, he needn't going down there so fast, as no members of the Gryffindor quidditch team could be seen sitting at the house table. Then again, the dark-haired wizard thought, Charms classroom was pretty close to the Great hall and for all he knew, their classes could have been in the other end of the castle...

Alicia, Angelina and the twins, along with the rest of the Gryffindor sixth years, arrived to the Great hall only several minutes later, and Katie, who came with a small group of fifth year students from all houses – apparently, they had an elective as their second lesson today – joined the Lions at their table in another couple of minutes... Seeing that now everyone he needed was there, Harry quickly finished his lunch, just in case Fred and George wouldn't stick around for too long wanting to prepare one of their pranks or something, and headed to where his ex-teammates were sitting. And even though they were sitting further down the table, he was going to talk to the twins first.

"Gentlemen." The young Potter said, as he stood behind the prankster duo. The said duo eating their lunches quickly (apparently, they indeed had some plans for this lunch break) at the rate that could only be matched by their younger brother. Glancing to where Ronald was sitting, the dark-haired teen couldn't help but make a wry face: the youngest of the Weasley brothers, unlike all of his siblings that he had met, had absolutely no table manners...

"Why, if it isn't lord Potter?!" The twins said simultaneously as they turned look at him. "What brings you to our end of the table this fine day, Harrikins?" Sighing at their antics, the green-eyed youth went straight to the business:

"Well, guys, yesterday evening I had talk with professor McGonagall which affects the Gryffindor quidditch team greatly. So, sometime before dinner tonight, I'd like to talk to you and the girls about it, alright?" Fred and George looked at each other, as if communicating silently, before nodding.

"Alright, Harry, we'll be there." They replied. The green-eyed Potter nodded back, before leaving the duo to their own devices as he headed back to where the vixens were sitting. And as he approached them, the girls saw him and waved to him. And when he got nearer, Katie moved to the side slightly, giving him a place to sit, which he gratefully accepted.

"Thank you." He said, but the brunette just waved her hand dismissively. Sighing lightly, the dark-haired wizard continued. "If you don't mind, ladies, I'll get straight to the point." All three girls nodded almost simultaneously. "Well, you see, I had a talk with professor McGonagall yesterday, which was of a great importance to our quidditch team, and so, later today, sometime before the dinner, I'm holding a small meeting to pass this information to you and the twins."

"Alright, Harry, we will be there." Alicia said, while first Angelina and then, a couple of moments later, Katie too, nodded. Of course, the young Potter could see it in their eyed that they'd rather he share the news now, but the sight of the Weasley twins leaving the Great hall – to work on one of their newest pranks, most likely – was enough to convince them to wait for now.

"Thanks." The green-eyed wizard said with a small smile. Then he tried to stand up and leave, but he was quickly stopped by Katie's hand on his knee. He looked at her.

"Tss..." The brunette breathed out. "Why don't you tell us about your summer in the meantime, Harry? I'm sure it was quite interesting." The green-eyed Potter sighed, while thinking of how much he could tell the vixens about his summer adventures, and how much of it he should keep a secret...

* * *

For Harry, the classes in the afternoon didn't seem to drag on as much as Charms in the morning did, though h couldn't say that the time flew by either... Eventually, though, the bell from his final lesson that day rang, and the dark-haired teen quickly made his way back to the Gryffindor common room. Not really surprisingly the Weasley twins were already there – after all, as they had earned only so many OWL, they couldn't have continued with more than a handful of courses. Katie, who had only four lessons on Fridays, was there as well, but Alicia and Angelina were yet to return to the tower after their fifth lesson.

Exchanging a nod with them, Harry went upstairs to the fourth-year boys' dormitories to change into something more comfortable than the Hogwarts uniform. And even though he was quite quick about this, by the time he returned to the common room, the two vixens that were 'missing' previously, had finally arrived.

"Thank you all for coming." The young Potter said as he took a seat in the armchair next to his now ex-teammates. "But I'm afraid, I'll have to start with bad news: I'm leaving the team." Of course, he knew that this piece of news will not be received with enthusiasm by the quintet, and so he braced himself for their reactions.

"But, Harry!" The Weasley twins protested loudly. "You can't! You're the best seeker Gryffindor had had in the last years!" The vixens weren't as loud about this, but they definitely agreed with Fred and George.

"Well..." The dark-haired teen started rather weakly. "According to what professor McGonagall said to me yesterday, I can't play on the house team anymore because of this." He said, while pointing to his right eye. "Apparently, even if it has no special features, it is still considered as artificial enhancement." There was a round of 'oh'-s. "But to be honest.." Harry continued. "... I was planning to leave the team after this year regardless. I'm not even a heir, but a full-time lord, remember?" It was a couple of seconds before Katie and then the other two vixens nodded.

"Alright..." Angelina said with a sigh. "We will have to find a decent seeker as well next year..." Here, the young Potter shook his head.

"And this is when I announce the second piece of news. Professor McGonagall said that while the staff is too busy with the tournament to run the school quidditch cup this year, she also said that we are free to use the pitch at least till early spring. In other words, we can have the try-outs and train new seeker and new keeper this year." A pause, before he continued: "And maybe you should start looking for the new chasers and beaters as well. No offense, but everyone but Katie here will be graduating next year." One by one, the members of the Gryffindor quidditch team nodded.

"So, do we hold the tryouts as soon as possible?" Alicia asked after several seconds of silence.

"Actually, I think it'd be better if we wait until after the first years have their flying lessons." Angelina replied. "They will be allowed to play and have their own brooms the next year." Then the dark-skinned witch looked pointedly at the Weasley twins. "And since you two don't have that many classes, I'm sure, you can find some time to observe those flying lessons. Who knows, there may be some firstie that is really good."

"Sure, Angie, we will." The twins replied quickly and simultaneously, though, how much of their enthusiasm about this was real wasn't clear... From this point on the meeting morphed into a planning session of what the team was to do this school year, and aside from promising to help training the new seeker, Harry barely participated in this, letting his ex-teammates to work the things out themselves.

**~/ *** \~**

The next two weeks weeks passed without anything noteworthy happening. Well, that wasn't truth, as professor Moody's DADA classes so far had been anything but normal, as the retired auror captain was using quite unorthodox methods to bring his point – one's safety was most dependent on one's vigilance – across...

At the beginning of the September's third week the flying lessons for the firsties were finally announced through a note on the bulletin board in the common room. And for the next several days the youngest Lions split into two main groups: those braggin about their supposed skills and those afraid of making fools of themselves... Damn, the young Potter thought, were he and his year-mates just like this three years ago?

Friday morning that week – the flying lessons for the first years took place on Thursday – saw the entire population of the Gryffindor house clustering around the bulletin board after the breakfast. Of course, Harry knew the reason for that – after all, he was among those who will be testing the new players for the team, including his own replacement – but he decided to play a role of an innocent 'bystander' and too joined the people crowding around the announcement about the tryouts for the house quidditch team.

_ Wizards and witches of Gryffindor!_ The note posted by the Weasley twins read. _The illustrious quidditch team of yours faithfully is looking for new talents. If you feel that you are up to the challenge of protecting the honor of your house on the pitch as the keeper or the seeker, come to the tryouts that will commence at the quidditch pitch at 10am on this Sunday, September 25th._  
_ P.S. We ask the seventh year students not to bother coming as there will be no games played this year. The first years, on the other hand, are welcome to try for the team._

Having finished reading the note, the young Potter made his way out of the crowd, which seemed to have grown only larger in the last couple of minutes, and headed upstairs to the fourth year boys' dormitories to pick the textbooks for the day: it was Friday, and no one had canceled the classes, so... And if his dorm-mates wanted to be late for the first lesson, that was their problem.

* * *

The news that Harry Potter was no longer a part of the Gryffindor quidditch team spread through the castle like a wildfire and by the lunchtime entire school knew about him suddenly leaving the team. This had some unfortunate consequences for the green-eyed youth as now he had to dodge those who wanted to interrogate him about this: even most of his haters wouldn't deny that he had some skills on the broom.

And while houses Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw were more or less calmly celebrating the news while hoping that whoever was chosen as the Gryffindor new seeker wasn't as good, the house of Snakes wasn't as quiet. Some of the more spiteful Slytherins even started rumors that Potter got kicked out of the team because he no longer had enough fame to be there. Unfortunately for them, these rumors were so baseless that only select few even pretended to believe them; and Harry himself didn't even bother to feel offended by these, so by the end of the day, these rumors died out.

**~/ *** \~**

Much like it was expected, at least a third of the Gryffindor students that weren't in their final year came to the tryouts. And almost all of them, the new boy #1 of the magical Britain included, wanted to be tried for the position of the seeker. Ginny, who looked like the twins had more or less dragged her here by force was in this group as well...

Harry once again observed those aspiring to become the new seeker for the team. There were so many of them that he, being the one orchestrating this part of the tryouts, was facing a problem: he had only so many many fake snitches prepared. Sure, he could always change the task, but he wasn't sure that anything he could think up as the replacement will be as fair to everyone as the original one... In the end, he decided to just an extra round in the beginning and quickly eliminate those who couldn't fly well enough. And the twins were more than happy to help him with this.

"Alright." The young Potter said, looking between nineteen Gryffindors he was supposed to test and ten old Comet 260 broomsticks lying on the ground. "Since there are so many of you, we'll have additional round. You will be separated into two groups and fly five laps around the pitch while Fred and George here will do anything they are allowed as the beaters to make it harder for you. Five best fliers from each group will continue onto the next round of tryouts. Any questions?"

Unfortunately, there was a question, and it was not a 'good' one: apparently, being Dumbledore's poster boy went to young Ronald's head more than Harry had expected, and the redhead wanted to fly a better broom, and thus gain an advantage over other competitors by default, because he was the chosen one, blah, blah, blah... It took the green-eyed Potter more than five minutes and quite a few nerve cells, but in the end he managed to make the redhead see the things his way. And so the decisively unhappy 'chosen one' mounted one of the offered school Comet 260s, as did the rest of the first group to be tested for their flying skills.

And, as it turned out, with a broom no better than any other, Ron had great troubles when it came to racing against other seeker-hopefuls. Actually, he finished only seventh in his race, and so he couldn't advance into the next round of the tryouts. And no matter how he tried to throw around his name to change that, it didn't help him: Harry stood firm on what he had said earlier. In the end, the redhead 'accepted' his defeat and stomped away angrily, muttering something about having words with professor Dumbledore... Shrugging, the young Potter turned to the second group of the seeker-hopefuls and told them to mount the brooms...

The rest of the tryouts – at least the part that Harry was handling – went without anything really outstanding happening. Once those that couldn't fly good enough were weeded out, the second phase began. During it, the ten remaining potential seekers were hunting twenty-five fake snitches that the green-eyed teen had released. And while it took the seeker-hopefuls over two hours to catch them all, the young Potter didn't really have much problem with it: after all, it gave him some time to ponder on the other, and more important, things.

Eventually, all of the fake snitches for this round were caught, and the three aspiring seekers that had caught the most went into the final round of the tryouts. Which was more or less the same as the previous one, though this time Harry himself was hunting the fake snitches – there were just five of those now – himself, playing the role of the other team's seeker. Of course, it was a bit unfair, seeing that he was using his Nimbus 2000, but, well, life wasn't fair, and whichever seeker got chosen in the end must understand that sometimes he will have his skills as the only chance to win against the better equipped opponent...

It took another hour of flying to determine the best seeker hopeful among the three remaining, who, somewhat unexpectedly, was Arnold Simmons, a half-blood second year boy. He, despite scoring the lowest of the three in the previous round, was the only one who managed to catch a snitch with Harry in the air, and it was not by blind luck either – the young Potter could attest to that.

Once done with his half of the tryouts, the green-eyed teen decided to greet the new keeper of the team – the vixens had finished their own tests at least a couple of hours ago. And again, it wasn't someone, whom Harry would have expected: almost ethereally thin Lucy Browning from the third year below didn't look like someone capable of keeping the ring safe. But looks can be very deceiving, as the little witch had proven...

"Alright, ladies and gentlemen." Katie, who was trying to get used to her soon-to-be captaincy began, once only the team plus Harry were in the hearing range. "This is how we will train during this year..." And then she proceeded to tell everyone her plans for the team training...

* * *

That's all, folks!  
Leave me a **review**.


	55. Arrival of the guests

Here's the newest chapter for the "_**Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord**_", enjoy!

*** Review response**:  
**The Sinful**, **Naginator**, **The Swordslinger**, **reven228**, **Akuma-Heika**, **shugokage**, **nopparitari**, **ElementalMaster16**, **Wyrtha**, **x-marks-the-spot1974**, **pandora vanity**, **keinen**, **huntsman3**, thank you for your reviews, folks.  
**mliyanagamage**, nope, but the redhead will get into some troubles in two chapters. It will also be the first time when I will show 'dark-medic' Harry - in my definition that would someone who uses medical knowledge and skills not just to help others.  
**Zarosian Chaos**, well, wizards' do lack logic in the books.  
**JPElles**, hehe )  
**Lord Xantos A. Fowl**, thanks. And to be honest, I myself am not really sure, why I made an OC the new seeker. Maybe because I really couldn't see this recovering Ginny as someone who could handle attention - even that just from the tryouts - well enough. Remember, she had been possessed for a long time in her first year, and that is something that couldn't leave no damage to her psyche. She's not a social person and a spitfire anymore.

*** AN**: I think I should do it this chapter. The Triwizard tournament tasks in this story will be different from canon ones. Some more so than the other, but. I decided to try being a little original there.  
first task: the general idea will remain the same, but the execution of it will be different. Hopefully, it will be better than canon, but... Anyway, as I have planned it, it would definitely be more fun to watch if you suddenly found yourself watching it from the tribunes.  
second task: completely different.  
third task: still a maze, but a harder one, and the rules will be slightly different.

* * *

*** Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "_**Harry Potter**_" and its characters in any shape or form.

"human speech"  
"_wraith speech_"  
'_human thoughts_'  
"**powered speech / true prophecies by the seer**"  
"_**spells / parseltongue**_"  
_messages_

* * *

_This chapter is not beta-read yet._

* * *

**chapter 55: Arrival of the guests**

The last week of September went away really quickly for the young Potter as he barely had any spare time between his classes, his self-studies and quidditch practices where he was training the new seeker, Arnold: no matter how much Ron had whined and raved, Dumbledore didn't help him any with getting onto the team through some not exactly fair means.

Of course, this only made the redhead's mood even worse, and he kept accusing Harry and the rest of the team in 'crimes' ranging from favoritism to collusion with the evil Slytherins. But only a few of the more naïve Lions believed him – many had been there at the tryouts themselves and had seen Ron's rather so so performance – and so the 'chosen one' didn't have enough support go beyond his poor attempts at character slander...

At the same time, while the Gryffindor team was the first one to start using the pitch for their training session this year, the advantage they got from this was very small actually – once the other houses' teams learned that they weren't banned from training for the year because of the Triwizard tournament, they too started booking the pitch for themselves. Thankfully for the house of Lions, though, all those teams were facing pretty much the same problem with some of their most experienced players having already graduated or graduating this year.

Though, to be honest, Harry wasn't really worrying about quidditch anymore. Sure, he still wanted Gryffindor to win the cup, but... Anyway, he had more important things to worry about nowadays. And one of those 'things' was a certain friend of his in Slytherin. Of course, Draconica was still saying that she didn't need his help, but the green-eyed wizard could see that she was getting more and more nervous as the day when a new contracts for her could be signed approached.

And as much as he wanted to help her keep her freedom, now that he had thought about it with greater detail, Harry found his original plan to make the winning bid for her hand to be nigh impossible to execute. If he used the Potter name, he will be denied simply because Potters and Malfoys had different political affiliations. And openly calling yourself lord Slytherin around anyone connected with the Death Eaters was not a good idea either... Maybe it was time to start using not exactly legal means?

During his travels this summer, the green-eyed wizard came across quite a few spells that were unknown or at least not widely known in Great Britain. And among those spells there was one that might help him a lot in his quest to help Draconica. It was a charm commonly referred to as 'recall me not' in Asia. Once attached to something – even a single written word – it will make it almost impossible for anyone to consciously remember what this something is... Of course, using something like this on the legal documents was illegal – at least in those parts of the world where this charm was known. Thankfully for Harry, magical Britain wasn't familiar with this particular piece of magic...

**~/ *** \~**

Sometime in the middle of the second week of October, Draconica received a letter from her father that had made her decisively uneasy. Normally, if and when her father shared something with her, he gave her all of the relevant information, but this time, it looked almost like he had been put under the effects of _**confundus** _charm or something: in the name of Merlin's socks, how was it possible not to remember who you planned to marry your daughter to, when you were writing to her to inform about this very marriage?

Yet, here was the letter, in which the Malfoy heiress was informed that she will be marrying to some jerk named Hadrian that supposedly came from 'a house of good standing'... Actually, the lack of the family name wasn't the only thing that bothered the blonde witch – being raised by her mother as a Black, she had learned by heart family trees of all important families of magical Britain that were still out there, yet she couldn't recall anyone still alive, who bore name Hadrian.

Was her father planning to sell her to some foreigner? Well, that was a possibility as it wasn't likely that people outside magical Britain knew about the fate of her previous contracted one. Maybe she should follow her aunt Andromeda's example? Draconica ruthlessly squashed this idea, at least for the moment. She knew she shouldn't be jumping to conclusions, and if worse came to worse and there indeed was some 'sinister plan' in place, she will be able to run away later...

Of course, Draconica had shared all this with her two closest friends – Daphne and Tracey, and both witches agreed that she shouldn't act without more information about this Hadrian.

**~/ *** \~**

It was Sunday, October twenty third, when notifications about the Beauxbaton and Durmstrang delegations arriving in one week appeared in the common rooms of all four houses. And of course this got everyone very excited: one couldn't go anywhere without hearing various and often rather outrageous theories about what the students from the other schools will be like and how they will arrive to Hogwarts... The tournament itself once again was a hot topic as well: pretty much everyone was making their guesses about who the Hogwarts champion will be and what challenges the champions will have to face.

Meanwhile, it looked like all members of the staff joined Filch and house elves on the quest of keeping the castle as clean as possible. And, Harry could easily say that they were quite successful there – the green-eyed teen had never seen the place in such a good shape in all those three years had spent there: the suits of armor were suddenly gleaming and moving without squeaking and some of the most grimly portraits were all cleaned, much to their obvious displeasure.

A day before the delegations from the other schools were to arrive, the Great hall was decorated with enormous banners for each of the houses on one wall, and even more enormous one for the Hogwarts itself over the professors' table. The said table kept its normal size for the moment, though the young Potter was sure that it will be expanded to accommodate Beauxbaton and Durmstrang officials once those delegations arrive.

* * *

Next Sunday started pretty much like any normal weekend would, but that feeling quickly disappeared when everyone was reminded that the delegations from other school will be arriving in the evening. To that end, all students will have to fall into rank in front of the castle about fifteen minutes before the delegations were to arrive. While some time earlier in the semester it would have been a good idea, it seemed that the administration had conveniently forgot that it was the end of October now – evenings were far from warm up there in Scotland, and even the cloaks all of the students were supposed to have wouldn't be a great help if everyone was to stand still. Oh well...

Harry didn't knew how it was in the other houses, but at four thirty in the evening – and an hour and a half before Beauxbaton and Durmstrang delegations were to arrive – professor McGonagall, already wearing her dress robes, entered the Gryffindor tower and, threatening one-tracks with detentions, made everyone change into their uniform plus cloaks and line up in the common room. Once that was done, the transfiguration professor personally inspected everyone's clothes, berating quite a few students, including Ron, for not keeping their robes clean.

Once the head of the Gryffindor house was more or less satisfied with her students, she led them down to the Hogwarts' front door, where the students from Hufflepuff and Slytherin were already lined up. Ravenclaws arrived a minute later, and as soon as that happened, Dumbledore himself led everyone outside, where something akin a small tribune of seven rows could be seen.

The first years were to fill the first row, second years – the second and so on. Thankfully, as each row rose slightly above the previous one, everyone had a good view of... well, Black lake and a glade in front of it... The professors made some final checks, which mostly consisted of prettying their houses up, before they themselves lined up in front of their students. Then everyone waited...

For the next ten or so minutes nothing of any interest had happened – everything was still, silent and quite as usual on the darkening ground – and quite a few students started feeling impatient, not to mention cold. But they weren't allowed to chat or even move a little as professors were closely watching their charges' discipline.

"Aha! Unless I am very much mistaken, the delegation from Beauxbaton approaches!" Dumbledore said suddenly, his eyes skimming above the Forbidden forest. All of the students followed his gaze, but so far could see nothing. Then a dark shape appeared, and as it grew closer, it became clear that whatever it was, it was huge. When the shape was already over the far end of the forest, everyone could see that it was a gigantic carriage, pulled through air by a good dozen of abraxans, each the size of an elephant.

The pale-blue carriage with the Beauxbaton coat of arms on the doors made a circle over the lawn, before it descended onto the ground not so gently. Once it came to a halt, the door opened and a boy in pale blue robes jumped down from the carriage, bent forward, fumbled for a moment with something on the carriage floor, and unfolded a set of golden steps. Then he sprang back respectfully, allowing his headmistress – madam Maxime – to come out.

And she was quite a noticeable woman, and not just because only Hagrid could compare to her in size: despite being this ...big, she was handsome with olive-skinned face, large black liquid-looking eyes and a rather beaky nose. She had hair drawn back in a shining knob at the base of her neck. She was dressed from head to foot in black satin, and many magnificent opals gleamed at her throat and on her thick fingers.

Madam Maxime was followed by about three dozens of her students – most of them being girls – who now stood in two neat rows behind her. All of them were dressed in pale-blue uniforms that likely were made from silk. Those few wizards that could be seen among the Beauxbaton delegation wore no hats, but the witches did, and those hats also were pale-blue and, unlike Hogwarts' ones, were slightly inclined to the left.

Professor Dumbledore approached madam Maxime and they exchanged some words, before the delegation from the French academy of magical arts headed into the castle, which, in the light of their uniforms, was a good decision. Meanwhile, Hagrid showed everyone why he was Hogwarts' best specialist in magical animals as he skillfully guided the abaraxans (still harnessed to the enormous carriage) away from the lawn...

Just about five minutes later many noticed a disturbance on the surface of the Black lake. The said disturbance quickly was revealed to be an emerging sail ship, likely a frigate, which looked strangely skeletal in the dim light of the evening. Once the frigate was fully emerged, it glided towards the bank, where it threw an anchor. Then, a gang plank moved, creating a path from the deck and onto the ground, and the arriving delegation started disembarking.

The Durmstrang delegation moved much like a platoon of soldiers would, with their headmaster Karkarov at the head of the formation. Karkarov was a pretty tall and thin man in his forties with short white hair and a slightly-curling goatee; he was wearing a cloak adorned with sleek sliver fur that contrasted with the reddish shaggy and matted furs of his students...

And while Karkarov was talking to Dumbledore, Harry to a chance to study the Durmstrang students a bit better. There were twenty four of them, and most of them were males, though several not unattractive witches could be seen there as well. It was also clear that despite the bulky cloaks they all wore, most of them had lean and well-trained bodies – something that wasn't as common here at Hogwarts... Suddenly Harry's eyes, along with many of his schoolmates', focused on one certain student originating from Bulgaria: it looked like famous quidditch star Victor Krum was a Durmstrang student...

Once the two headmasters finished talking between themselves, Karkarov led his charges into the castle. And once they all were out of the view, Dumbledore ordered the heads of the houses to lead their students to the Great hall in an organized way.

* * *

The Great hall had changed quite a bit since lunch. Durmstrang and Beauxbaton banners were put up to the left and to the right from Hogwarts banner respectively. The professors' table had been enlarged to accommodate four more seats. Two of those were occupied by madam Maxime and headmaster Karkarov, while the other two, though empty at the moment, were reserved for the representatives of British Ministry for Magic: Barty Crouch Sr. and Ludo Bagman.

Meanwhile, the ends of the four house tables that were closer to the professors' got rearranged into two new tables. The one on the Slytherin and Ravenclaw 'half' of the Great hall was given to the Durmstrang delegation, while the one one was occupied by the Beauxbaton students. Between these two tables there stood an ornate golden pedestal. There was nothing on it at the moment, but it was also clear that it was there for a reason.

Once everyone was seated, Dumbledore stood up from his throne-like armchair, causing a silence to fell over the Great hell. Having everyone's attention, the old warlock started his unnecessary-long and gaudy speech that could be surmised to just ten words: 'Welcome to Hogwarts, I hope you will enjoy our hospitality'. Then, madam Maxime and headmaster Karkarov gave their own speeches, but thankfully for the hungry witches and wizards from all three schools, neither of them took as long as Dumbledore did.

And as soon as they were done with their speeches, the food appeared on the plates and the feast started. The house-elves in the kitchens seemed to have outdone themselves again: there was a greater variety of dishes on the tables, and quite a few of them were definitely foreign.

Nothing too major happened during the feast itself, though quite a few Gryffindor and Hufflepuff males paid more attention to the Beauxbaton girls than to their own meal, but it wasn't really their fault, as one of those witches appeared to be a part-veela or something similar to that... Also, sometime during the feast – Harry wasn't sure about the exact timing himself – the representatives of the British Ministry for Magic arrived, apparently to witness the start of the tournament.

When everyone had eaten their share, Dumbledore rose from his seat to make another speech, which he began with the introduction of Mr. Bagman and Mr. Crouch Sr.. Then he proceeded to explain some things about this reincarnation of the Triwizard tournament, before he asked Filch to fetch some casket. The said casket, as it turned out, contained the Goblet of fire – a large, roughly hewn wooden cup that would have been entirely unremarkable had it not been full of dancing blue-white flames. And this Goblet of fire was that 'impartial judge' that would select a champion for each of the three competing schools.

The Goblet of fire was placed onto the pedestal and Dumbledore moved on to the next part of his announcement which was about the way one wishing to become a champion should submit their name. The old warlock also reminded everyone that, because of the dangers involved, this time only those seventeen or older will be allowed to participate – this caused quite a few discontent moans among the Hogwarts students – and to ensure that no one underage tried to enter him- or herself, Dumbledore right there and then cast an age line around the goblet. Not that this was going to stop people from trying, Harry thought as he listened to the Weasley twins and their best friend Lee Jordan planning to use aging potion to get past the line...

As Dumbledore finished his speech, the feast came to an end, but neither Durmstrang nor Beauxbaton students were leaving their tables yet. Instead, from what Harry could see as he was walking out of the Great hall along with his housemates, madam Maxime and headmaster Karkarov approached them and started explaining something to them with the help from the Hogwarts staff...

**~/ *** \~**

Argus Filch, having finished his patrolling rounds, was heading back to his quarters to get some well deserved sleep, when he heard the distinctive clacking sound of professor Moody's wooden leg near the Great hall. Since the retired auror captain usually was already asleep this late in the night, the Hogwarts caretaker decided to see what the man was up to.

"Alastor?" Filch called out as he approached the man, who was examining the locked doors of the Great hall. Moody, his wand already glowing with some curse, turned around with the speed no one would expect from someone using an artificial limb. Seeing, who had disturbed him, the ex-auror lowered his wand.

"Don't sneak up on me, Filch." He barked as Argus let out a breath of relief from not being cursed out of his pants. "And leave me in peace – Goblet of fire is a very powerful artifact, but its power is so easy to abuse. I need to make sure that something like that doesn't happen: I will be vigilant even if no one else would." Shrugging, the Hogwarts caretaker continued on his way back to his room, leaving Moody to do his job in peace.

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That's all, folks!  
Leave me a **review**.


	56. Harry's Halloween luck

Here's the newest chapter for the "_**Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord**_", enjoy!

*** Review response**:  
**Nanashi113**, well, like he had told her on the train, this would be an easily dissolved no-repercussions contract, and he did tell her that he will try it. *plot hole* is he received his confirmation after Draconica got told about being betrothed again.  
**jafr86**, **anarion87**, **ElementalMaster16**, **emarald777**, **WritinGod05**, **reven228**, **Naginator**, **Artela**, **Penny is wise**, **raw666**, **shugokage**, **JPElles**, **TheNightKitsune**, **Zarosian Chaos**, **pandora vanity**, **McGeezel**, **bcgcdak**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
**mliyanagamage**, sorry man, maybe some other time. maybe I'll make a spin-off one-shot where Ron is the 4th champion. But as I can't write a decent bashing... But Ron will get his due soon.  
**Dericof Diname**, as for the first part of your review, the 'private' part will have to wait for now. ...and about the second: I have several ideas, and I think not a bad ones. Hopefully, I won't even have to spawn myriads of OCs for that.  
**The Swordslinger**, not this one. The next? maybe.  
**Wyrtha**, the key word is 'yet'.

*** AN**: In this chapter I 'officially' introduce the second character that I borrowed from "_**Freezing**_". Anyone can guess, who was the first one? Anyway, just adding to the disclaimer that I don't own "_**Freezing**_" as well.

Another thing I need to say is that originally this chapter was supposed to be at least 35% longer, but since I had troubles with filling the next chapter with events, I decided to move some away from this chapter. Anyway, next time you will get the first glimpse of what I defined as dark-medic!Harry in the summary. Hopefully, I won't disappoint you.

* * *

*** Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "_**Harry Potter**_" and its characters in any shape or form. Same with "_**Freezing**_" anime/manga series.

"human speech"  
"_wraith speech_"  
'_human thoughts_'  
"**powered speech / true prophecies by the seer**"  
"_**spells / parseltongue**_"  
_messages_

* * *

_This chapter is not beta-read yet._

* * *

**chapter 56: Harry's Halloween luck**

For Merlin knows what reason Harry almost slept in the next day, thus he arrived to the Great hall just a couple of minutes before the morning owl post. And this morning, along with his copy of the 'Daily Prophet' the green-eyed wizard also received a letter that bore Malfoy crest on the wax seal... Quickly scanning through the articles in the newspaper as he ate his breakfast and finding nothing that could be important to him, the young Potter turned his attention to the letter. Inside, there was a lengthy and gaudy message from the lord Malfoy saying that he had (somewhat begrudgingly, as could be read between the lines) agreed to the terms of the contract that Harry had proposed and him wishing to see his daughter married off as soon as possible.

The dark-haired teen snorted: Lucius would be in for quite some surprise, when he will finally learn who this 'noble upstanding pure-blood lord' truly was... Still, now that he knew that he had won the bid for Draconica's hand, the green-eyed Potter found himself in need of breaking the news to the blond witch herself. And while it likely would be better if he were to catch her alone later today, he decided that he should do this right now. Thus, the young Gryffindor headed to the Slytherin table...

"Lady Malfoy?" He said smoothly as he approached the beauty in question. "A moment of your time, if I can." Draconica, who was still eating her breakfast, nodded, silently telling him to continue. Harry just sighed – honestly, how do you explain it to a girl that you've just bought her as your bride? – and not finding something good to say, instead, he just handed her the letter. "I think that you may find this interesting, milady." The blond witch took the letter from his hand and scanned it with her eyes...

A sound of someone getting slapped instantly drew everyone's attention to the Slytherin table where one Harry Potter, his left cheek now bearing a red hand-print on it, was staring shocked at the Malfoy heiress.

"You could have forewarned me." Draconica said in a fake-calm voice before roughly thrusting the letter, which he instinctively accepted back, into his chest. Then she stood up and stormed out of the Great hall, leaving the green-eyed teen to stare dumbly at the seat that she had been occupying... And while this already was nothing good, professor Snape decided to make the things even worse for him:

"Potter, you insufferable brat!" The Hogwarts Potions master shouted with pure loathing in his voice. "A month of detentions and one hundred points from Gryffindor for harassing other students! Get back to your table at once or I'll have you scrubbing the cauldrons until you graduate!" Harry, still too shocked about how wrong his 'talk' with Draconica went, followed the 'order' to return back to the Gryffindor table without a conscious thought. The facts that Snape had just punished him so severely and rather unjustly, and that neither Dumbledore nor McGonagall nor any other professor did a thing about it barely registered in his head...

Meanwhile, the Malfoy heiress was running back to the Slytherin dormitories, the sudden rage at being left in the dark about her new marriage contract that had filled her being a minute ago making way for the realization of what she had done back there. Now, she was angry with herself for acting so Gryffindor-like rashly and possibly ruining her relationship with Harry... She wanted to break and start crying, but she didn't allow herself to: she was a Slytherin and Slytherins do not show such a weakness in public – though once she was in the safety of her room in the dungeons...

**~/ *** \~**

The classes that day passed in a blur for Harry, as his mind kept reiterating his talk with Draconica, trying to figure out where it went so wrong. So wrong that the blond beauty never came to the DADA that day... No, he saw her again during lunch, but she wouldn't look him into the eyes, and from what he could see, she had been crying for quite some time... Daphne and Tracey flanking the Malfoy heiress and continuously glaring at him didn't help the green-eyed wizard either.

If his relationship with Draconica was the only problem, the young Potter could have managed, but it also was Halloween, and his gut feeling was telling him that something bad was going to happen. Yet, the feast was mandatory and there was nothing – not even his detentions with Snape, no matter what the dungeon bat wanted – could allow him not to attend...

* * *

The Halloween feast seemed to drag on and on for Harry. Maybe this was because the problems from the morning still occupied his mind; maybe it was because his instincts were telling him that something bad will happen really soon; or maybe it was simply because this was the second feast in two days, the young Potter didn't know.

At long last the golden plates were clean once more. With their mouths no longer filled with food, the students, mostly from Hogwarts, started chatting in a discord of voices, trying to guess, who will be chosen as a champion for each school. But once Dumbledore got to his feet, everyone became quiet, understanding that those questions will be answered any moment now...

"Well, the goblet is almost ready to make its decision." The Hogwarts headmaster said. "I estimate that it requires one more minute. Now, when the champions' names are called, I would ask them please to come up to the top of the Hall, walk along the staff table, and go through into the next chamber" He then indicated the door behind the staff table. "Where they will be receiving their first instructions." Taking out his wand, the old warlock made a great sweeping motion, extinguishing all of the lights in the great hall, save for the the candles inside the carved pumpkins. And the Goblet of Fire itself, of course.

The Goblet now shone more brightly than anything in the whole hall, the sparkling bright, bluish-white flames almost painful on the eyes. Everyone watched, waiting for the artifact to somehow chose the champions... Some of the more impatient people kept checking their watches... Suddenly, the flames inside the goblet turned red and sparks began to fly from it. A moment later, a tongue of flame shot into the air, and charred piece of parchment fluttered out of it, causing the whole hall to gasp. Dumbledore caught this piece of parchment and read it out aloud:

"The Hogwarts' champion is Mr. Cedric Diggory!" Instantly, Hogwarts purplish banner extended downwards a bit to accommodate the chosen champion's name, written in ornate golden letters, under the school's crest. And below Cedric's name number '0' appeared, ornate and in gold as well...

Meanwhile, the Hufflepuff table was screaming and stamping for their victory, while the other three tables were silently or not so silently complaining about the unfairness of the Hogwarts' champion coming not from their house... Dumbledore allowed the lack of his students' discipline to last for several seconds, before calling to order. During this time Cedric, unnoticed by many, slipped into the room where the champions were supposed to be waiting for their instructions.

And he did this just in time as the Goblet of Fire returned another piece of parchment. The aged warlock again caught the said piece of parchment, but instead of reading it out aloud, he handed it over to Madam Maxime. The French headmistress accepted it with a slight bow, before she announced the name of the champion who will be representing her school in this Triwizard tournament:

"The Beauxbaton champion is Fleur Delacour." Much like it had happened with the Hogwarts' banner, the Beauxbaton's one too extended to accommodate the name of the champion and her current score.

Fleur, the girl who definitely had some veela heritage, gracefully stood up from her seat at the Beauxbaton table and _glided_ towards the side room of the Great hall. Her schoolmates were... distressed by the fact they weren't chosen, and while those few boys were holding their emotions back admirably, several girls were openly crying...

The Goblet of Fire was ready to give the name of the final champion, and everyone could see that headmaster Kakarov was barely restraining himself from snatching the parchment out of the air himself, when the flames brought it out. Still, he let Dumbledore to get it for him.

"The champion for the Durmstrang institute of Magic will be Victor Krum!" The vine-red banner of the said magical school, just like it had happened with the other too, changed and how had Victor's name and current score written on it... Once the Great hall fell more or less silently again – after Krum disappeared into the side room with the two other other champions – Dumbledore restored the normal lights in the Great hall and gave a short speech:

"Excellent! Well, we now have our three champions. I am sure I can count upon all of you, including the remaining students from Beauxbaton and Durmstrang, to give your champions every ounce of support you can muster. By cheering your champion on, you will contribute greatly in their victories and help them overcome their loses." The old warlock made a short pause. "But for now I will ask you all to remain quiet as the champions will be given their instructions about the first task of the tournament." With those words said, the three heads of the schools and two representatives of the British Ministry for Magic stood up and headed to the room where the three champions were waiting...

Somewhere at the Gryffindor table, one Harry Potter let out a sigh of relief: apparently, this year his Halloween misfortunes were limited to those detentions he got from Snape and his fall out with Draconica. Too bad, the fate had other plans for him. Just when Crouch was about to open the door into the side room of the Great hall, the flames of the Goblet of Fire turned read for the fourth time this evening. Then the artifact spat another charred piece of parchment. This shocked everyone so much that for a couple of seconds no one moved... Then, Dumbledore, ignoring the spreading not so quiet chatter of the students, returned to the professors' table and picked the piece of parchment up.

"Harry Potter." He read the only two words that were written on it, causing the entire Great hall to get suddenly filled with a ringing silence. And in this silence pretty much everyone could hear a sound of something glass being broken... It took the people several seconds to recover their wits, but once that happened, the Great hall became filled with loud cries of outrage directed at the certain green-eyed Gryffindor teen. "Silence!" Dumbledore said in a commanding tone, but the Hogwarts students seemed to have ignored him. Sighing, the aged wizard pointed his wand at his throat and whispered an incantation. "**I said Silence!**" His magically amplified voice was enough to shut everyone up. Canceling the spell, he continued: "What is the meaning of this, Mr. Potter?"

"The brat wants more attention for himself, what else?" Snape sneered. "Couldn't stand for someone else getting some fame, eh, Potter?" The Potions master said, instigating Harry to do something stupid, so that he could give him another month of detentions or something like that... The green-eyed wizard sighed. It looked like without something extreme to prove his innocence, only Hermione and Neville would believe him that he didn't put his name into the Goblet of Fire. Well, his four Slytherin girl friends might as well, but so far he had been unable to confirm this by looking into their eyes...

"_**Sonorus!**_" He didn't really like feeling of the charm, but he did need everyone to hear him: "**I, Harry James Potter...**" Since his name was written this way on that damned piece of parchment, he really didn't have to publicly reveal himself as lord Slytherin at the moment. "**...Do swear upon my magic and my life that I did not put my name into the Goblet of Fire. I did not levitate, banish, throw or otherwise deliver the parchment with my name in the Goblet without crossing the age line.**" Harry smiled inwardly upon seeing more than a few people hit the tables with their head, obviously from the fact that they didn't even think about trying any of this. "**I did not ask, bribe, blackmail or otherwise force any other minor, adult, magical or non-magical creature or magical construct to put my name into the goblet for me.**" More people were hitting the tables with their heads. "**So mote it be!**" There was a flash of magic that signified that the oath was accepted. And since the green-eyed wizard was still standing alive, he did not lie. Yet, he wasn't done just yet: "_**Expecto patronum!**_" Summoning the designated memory for the spell was not that easy for Harry, given what had happened earlier today, but he managed, and the wisps of silvery smoke left the tip of his wand, forming his 'guardian' patronus behind him.

And what a patronus it was. There was no single word to describe it as it's form wasn't that of any known creature, magical or not, even though it did resemble naga or lamia somewhat. It stood almost three meters tall and was as wide as Hagrid. It's head was rather dragon-like with several mismatched horns growing from it. Almost without a neck, this rather 'unfriendly' head was connected to a human-like and very muscled torso. The arms of the patronus were long and heavily-muscled, ending with long scythe-like claws. The lower body of the creature was serpentine, about thirteen meters long and almost a meter thick. Finally, there was a pair of actually feathery wings on the creature's back.

Of course, given how big this patronus was, it wasn't as bright and solid as its smaller 'brothers' could be: it appeared to be made from wisps of silvery smoke, instead of strong almost solid light. Yet, its appearance still drew loads of gasps from the witches and wizards in the Great hall: after all, not every day you see a fourteen years old capable of producing a fully-corporeal patronus...

There was a long pause, before students and adults alike started discussing in groups what they had just witnessed. And during this time, only few noticed Harry dispelling his patronus and sitting down... Eventually, after a couple of minutes, the tournament officials came to a decision:

"Mr. Potter, irregardless of you entering yourself or not, the Goblet chose you, so you're magically bound to compete. So, don't waste our time with your childishness and join the other champions in that room!" Crouch Sr. said irritatedly as he gestured carelessly towards the side room of the Great hall. The green-eyed teen growled angrily in response, but having heard various rumors about the man, he knew that should he resist, he'll just waste both his and the real champions' time. Plus, Violet was about to arrive, and with her help, Harry was sure, he will find his way out of this mess... Thus, giving a resigned nod, the young Potter left the Gryffindor table and headed to the side room where the champions were waiting.

Since the adults didn't seem to hurry too much, Harry entered the room first... The three champions were grouped around the fire. They looked strangely impressive, silhouetted against the flames. Krum, hunched-up and brooding, was leaning against the mantelpiece, slightly apart from the other two. Cedric was standing with his hands behind his back, staring into the fire. Fleur was sitting in the arm-chair, her long silvery hair cascading against her back and her left shoulder. But before the French witch could ask, why he was here, the rest of the officials entered the room.

"Gentlemen... Lady,.." Ludo Bagman said as he placed his hand familiarly onto Harry's shoulder. A moment later, though, the young Potter threw it off himself none too gently, before crossing him arms in front of his chest, while glaring at nothing in particular. "As extraordinary as it may be, may I introduce the fourth Triwizard champion?" Fleur started to laugh, but seeing that no one else treated this as a joke, she stopped, before looking at the Beauxbaton headmistress.

"Madame Maxime!" She said. "Zey are saying zat zis little boy is to compete also!" Harry shoot her an intensive glare: he wasn't 'little'. He wasn't that short either... The head of the French delegation though just shook her head, before turning to Dumbledore:  
"Even if the boy did not enter himself into the tournament, like he says, Hogwarts having two champions is still most unfair. What is the meaning of this?" Karkarov was quick to join her in throwing accusations at Albus:

"I'd rather like to know that myself, Dumbledore." The head of the Durmstrang institute said, his smile steely and his blue eyes like chips of ice. "Two Hogwarts champions? I don't remember anyone telling me the host school is allowed two champions – or have I not read the rules carefully enough?" Before this could escalate any further, Harry made his opinion known:

"Maybe you all should stop bickering like children in kindergarten and do something to get me the hell out of this damn tournament?" The green-eyed teen hissed, releasing an impressive magical aura. "Aren't we all of opinion that I have no place there?" Mr. Crouch didn't seem to be impressed with his determination to quit.

"Mr. Potter, your name came out of the Goblet of Fire. You _will_ compete." The head of the Department of Magical cooperation said loudly.

"And that is not something that should be decided this quick and without consulting the most full set of tournament rules." A smooth voice said from near the door of the room, causing everyone to look at the newcomer. He was an aristocratic-looking man in his late fifties. He had piercing-blue eyes, short blond hair, neatly trimmer-ed mustaches and a short beard. He was dressed in an almost-muggle deep-red business suit and had a thick folder in his left hand – a folder that Harry instantly recognized as his personal one from Violet's office. And even though the man was using a cane, it was clear that it was more to give him a proper image than anything else... "Lord Potter, please forgive me for taking this long to arrive here." Just by readjusting his grip on the folder he had with him, the man explained the reason for his lateness. "My name is Howard L Bridget and I will be your barrister for tonight."

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That's all, folks!  
Leave me a **review**.


	57. A duel for the unconvinced

Here's the newest chapter for the "_**Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord**_", enjoy!

*** Review response**:  
**DarkPirateKing69**, **ElementalMaster16**, **nopparitari**, **Nanashi113**, **quintonhas**, **WritinGod05**, **The Sinful**, **jafr86**, **Lord Xantos A. Fowl**, **Zarosian Chaos**, **Wyrtha**, **Joe Lawyer**, **shugokage**, **Penny is wise**, **kaazmiz**, **twilightnemo**, **Womgi**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
**Peeves' best friend**, **Naginator**, **StefanSlavatore93**, **ManlyMonk**, heh, they both are teens, and as such prone to making various mistakes, especially when interacting between themselves or with their peers.  
**Dericof Diname**, **JPElles**, **McGeezel**, **Shinku Ryuuga**, hehe )  
**The Swordslinger**, will the events of this chapter be alright for now?  
**magical fan18**, more like she will be making up to him ) His only fault was not giving her a concrete 'I'm doing this' beforehand - he did say that he shall try after all.  
**Grimjowx**, yes, just like I said in AN to that chapter, Howard L Bridget is a character I borrowed form "_**Freezing**_". Violet is as well, and here she too is his daughter. On the other hand, I think that after this chapter, I will not put Mr. L Bridget directly into the plot: Violet will be Harry's barrister again )  
**pandora vanity**, I'm not sure there is a word to describe that patronus. ...think of a more reptilian version of naga/lamia with bird-like wings.

* * *

*** Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "_**Harry Potter**_" and its characters in any shape or form. Same with "_**Freezing**_" anime/manga series.

"human speech"  
"_wraith speech_"  
'_human thoughts_'  
"**powered speech / true prophecies by the seer**"  
"_**spells / parseltongue**_"  
_messages_

* * *

**chapter 57: A duel for the unconvinced**

There was a short period of silence, during which the other adults, three real champions included, studied the newly arrived Mr. L Bridget. No one, even those who hadn't heard about him before, had no illusions that this man anything but a powerful figure, both in his knowledge and his magic. Alas, he wasn't really welcome there by the tournament officials: Crouch Sr., being under the _**Imperius** _curse, saw him as someone preventing him from successfully completing the task he was given; and Dumbledore just didn't favor anyone coming to _his_ school without _his_ invitation.

On the other hand, Harry... well, he couldn't say that he really happy with Mr. L Bridget being here instead of Violet – who would be either his daughter or his niece – but the man was definitely a professional, and a very powerful ally... But before they could even shake their hands, the Hogwarts headmaster decided to remind everyone that he was supposed to be the greatest authority here:

"Mr. L Bridget." The old warlock said. "I commend on your willfulness to help us resolve this conflict, but I assure you that this is just a minor problem that can easily be solved internally. You don't need to involve yourself here, and I'm sure you have more important things to spend your time on." He had his own reasons not to want any outsiders interfering with this: Voldemort.

The Dark Lord was somewhere out there, and he was getting active again, though, by the looks of it, he didn't know that the Potter boy was not the one whom the prophecy spoke about, and this suited the Hogwarts headmaster fine. He will not interfere with whatever scheme Tom had cooked up: once the Dark Lord defeats and kills Potter, he will grow arrogant, thinking that no one will be able to stop him now. And that was when Ron will strike, ending Voldemort once and for all... Of course, Dumbledore felt a little bad about sacrificing the young Potter like this, but for the Greater Good to prevail, sacrifices needed to be made...

"I'll involve myself in everything that my client thinks I should be involved in, Mr. Dumbledore." The blond barrister replied, sending a pointed glare at the older wizard. "And after what you've said just now, I'm not leaving anyway." The two men glared at each other for several seconds, before the Hogwarts headmaster lowered his eyes, sighing softly... This had earned Mr. L Bridget quite some respect from Harry – after all, only few could win a battle of wills with supposedly the most powerful wizard of the twentieth century.

"Very well. I'm sure that Mr. Bagman will be more than happy to provide a copy of the tournament rules for your examination." Dumbledore said, gesturing towards the head of the Department of Magical Sports and Games... There was a short pause, before he continued: "This matter aside, we should not waste the champions' time anymore this fine night, so, without further ado, I shall give you all the instructions for the first task." The Hogwarts headmaster made another pause to make sure that he had the attention from all four selected contestants. "The first task is designed to test your daring, so you will not be told what it is." Ludo Bagman continued from there:

"Courage in the face of the unknown is an important quality in a wizard... very important. The first task will take place on November the twenty-seventh, in front of the other students and the panel of judges. The champions are not permitted to ask for or accept help of any kind from their teachers to complete the tasks in the tournament. The champions will face the first challenge armed only with their wands. They will receive information about the second task when the first is over. Owing to the demanding and time-consuming nature of the tournament, the champions are exempted from NEWTs or similar tests at the end of the year..." He paused there, and looked at Harry. No one ever though that someone not in his or her last year will be chosen to compete, so no one bothered with creating a possibility to exempt a student from the normal end-of-the-year tests. "As for Mr. Potter here, it's up for his professors to decide, whether he will have to sit his exams or not."

This caused the green-eyed teen to growl under his breath as he imagined what reaction a certain Potions master will have to such a request from him... Still, most other professors were likely to allow him a free pass for the exams at the end of the year. Of course, all of this will be important only if he was really forced to compete in this trice damned tournament – Harry was really hoping that his barrister will find a way to get him out of this mess...

Seeing that the briefing had come to its end, the heads of Beauxbaton and Durmstrang led their students away, Cedric and the two ministry officials left the room as well, though from what Harry could hear, Mr. Bagman will be spending this night at the castle. Dumbledore looked a bit torn between keeping his grandfatherly image and directly interfering with his students' legal business, but in the end he decided to let the green-eyed Potter speak with his barrister in private...

* * *

The discussion that Harry had had with Mr. L Bridget lasted almost till the curfew, and most of it was spent on what kinds of reparations the green-eyed teen wanted for being entered into this damn tournament without his consent, and about what their reaction to the press, should they choose to libel him, would be... In the end, once everything important was discussed, the young Potter headed back to the Gryffindor tower, while Mr. L Bridget went to find Ludo Bagman in order to get a copy of the tournament rules.

By the time Harry reached the seventh floor, where the Gryffindor common room was located, he started feeling very tired from everything that had happened to his today, so the only thing he was wishing for at the moment was to get to his bed and get some much needed rest... Alas, it looked like the Fate wasn't done with him yet: just as the portrait hole behind him closed, a certain red-haired chosen one decided to confront him.

"Potter, you thieving jealous cheating bastard!" Ron, red in his face with his worked up irritation, yelled, trying to make himself as intimidating as possible. Something that he failed at, and not just because Harry was too tired to care. "How... How could you go and take my rightful place in the tournament, you attention seeking shit?" The redhead was about to continue his irate tirade, but the young Potter interrupted him, his tired voice conveying very well how much he cared about what bugged the youngest of the Weasley sons:

"What do you want? An honor duel?" Harry didn't even feel like pointing out that he had sworn on his life that he hadn't entered himself into the Triwizard – if the red-haired boy couldn't understand this himself, then explaining it to him will be just a waste of time. "Let it be tomorrow. I'm too damn tired right now." The dark-haired could practically read what the redhead was thinking at the moment: putting Potter in his 'place' was good, but doing so publicly was even better.

"In the Great hall tomorrow, Potter, and don't even think about running away like some filthy slithering snake!" Harry mumbled 'whatever' in response, before continuing on his way to his bed up there in the fourth-years' dormitory...

**~/ *** \~**

Somehow, by the time the breakfast was served the next morning, entire school – all three schools, actually – knew about the duel that was to happen that day... And Hermione, of course, was trying to talk Harry out of it. Mostly because she didn't want to see him fight and get hurt. But once the green-eyed teen pointed in out to her that this seemed to be about the only way to get Ron off his back, she ceased those attempts and wished him victory instead... Neville, like a good deal of Hogwarts students, was supporting the young Potter, and was doing this without trying to affect his decision to fight in any way.

Of course, there also were those, who believed that Ron was right and Harry had indeed stolen his place in the tournament. Thankfully, it was a minority that was composed mostly by the younger students, but this didn't mean that they were all quiet. If anything, they made it their mission to annoy the young Potter with their catcalls into doing something stupid that will prevent him from fighting in the duel and thus lose by default...

The Beauxbaton and Durmstrang delegations didn't really care about who was right and who was wrong there. Their interest in duel was fueled by something else – they all wanted to see what kind of wizards Hogwarts produced nowadays so that they could better prepare their champions for the tournament...

The morning for Harry turned even worse when the 'Daily Prophet' arrived. Somehow, as no one saw any of their reporters in the Great hall yesterday, they gave a good description of what had happened during the champions' selection with just one missing detail: they conveniently made no mentions of Harry's oath. In other words, the newspaper made it look like he had truly entered himself into the tournament to get some attention or something like that... Thankfully, the young Potter knew that his barristers will deal with this libel swiftly, so he didn't let this bother him any.

It was about fifteen minutes before the end of the breakfast when Ron – who looked very worried that he'll miss some food – showed up. But, surprisingly, instead of going straight to stuffing his mouth with his breakfast, the redhead approached the professors' table and not-so-calmly explained something to Dumbledore. Alas, Harry was sitting too far to hear that dialogue clearly, but judging by the expressions on the headmaster's face, the chosen one was talking about the duel... Once Ron was done with this, he hurried back to the Gryffindor table, not wanting to spend any more time away from his meal. Of course, on his way there he did ogle the Beauxbaton witches and especially that school's champion... Meanwhile, Dumbledore rose from his throne-like armchair:

"Ladies and gentlemen." The old warlock said, gaining everyone's attention. "Due to the events that had happened yesterday evening, an honor duel has been issued by Mr. Ronald Billius Weasley against Mr. Potter. The duel will take place here in the Hogwarts' Great hall after the breakfast, and those who have a free period are welcome to stay and watch." For the next several seconds silence reigned over the Great hall, but then the excited chatter started all over the place. Until the Hogwarts Charms master cleared his throat.

"Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff second years." The miniature man said. "Your Charms lesson today will be held there. We will be observing the duel and you will then tell me your thought about how and why those charms were used." The group of students to whom professor Flitwick addressed immediately exploded with loud cheering as none of them wanted to miss something as exiting as a duel between the Boy Who Lived and the Chosen One.

"Same goes for my class of the fifth year Gryffindors and Slytherins." Moody said as he slowly stood up. "Your task will be to observe the duel, notice the duelists' mistakes and write a foot long essay on how those could have been avoided by being vigilant for our lesson next week." More cheers from the students who didn't want to miss such an event.

* * *

Once the breakfast was finished and those who had lessons elsewhere in the castle lest the Great hall, with a wave of his wand Dumbledore made the four tables of the Hogwarts houses to move to the walls, creating a large open space in the center of the hall. After that, the old warlock made a series of complicated wand movements, creating something that resembled a professional dueling arena seemingly out of the thin air. The next five minutes the Hogwarts headmaster spent by layering some wards around the arena to protect the spectators form stray jinxes or any other nasty spells that the duelists will exchange between themselves... As soon as he was done with the preparations, Dumbledore announced:

"Ladies and gentlemen, the duel that you've been waiting for is about to begin. So I ask Mr. Weasley and Mr. Potter to enter the arena." Harry, who had been quite ready for this for some time already, proudly and gracefully walked onto the arena. Ron... Ron wasn't as prepared, and so he could be seen running up the short stairs that led up onto the arena with a half-eaten chicken leg in his left hand. Taking a last couple of bites from it, the redhead threw it away without caring where it landed, before wiping his mouth with a sleeve of his robe in a rather disgusting manner.

"Ready to lose, Potter?" The 'chosen one' asked, even if he hadn't swallowed all of the chicken he had been chewing yet... Harry did his best to remain impassive in the face of such an unsightly sight. And if that was not bad enough, one didn't need to be a legilimens in order to see what the redhead was thinking about – he was dreaming about defeating his enemy in some dramatic fashion to show how awesome he was, so that all pretty girls around, and especially the veela, will throw themselves to his feet, begging to be chosen as his girlfriend... Of course, all these girls in question could see this too, and they were far from impressed...

"If both duelists are ready, I want them to bow to each other so that the duel can begin." The old warlock announced as if everything was like it should be... Unfortunately for him, not everyone shared this point of view:

"I raise an objection." Harry said in a determined voice.

"On what grounds, Mr. Potter." Dumbledore replied, barely keeping himself from speaking in anything but his usual 'grandfatherly' voice: how dare the brat question his authority?!

"A master is allowed to judge his apprentice's duel if and only if the other duelist is his apprentice as well. Since only Mr. Weasley here is or ever was your apprentice, by the official rules of dueling you are not allowed to be a judge here." Before the Hogwarts headmaster could say something, professor Flitwick was already speaking:

"Mr. Potter is absolutely right, Albus. Someone else should judge this duel." There was an uneasy pause, and, surprisingly, it was madam Maxime who broke it.

"I know enough about dueling to judge these two monsieur." She said, her tone making it clear that volunteered for the task just to make this whole thing end as soon as possible... After the Hogwarts Charms master asked the duelists, whether they agreed with this, and receiving positive answers, he nodded for the Beauxbaton headmistress to begin. "Duelists, state your conditions." She said. "Mr. Weasley, you first."

"I want this stealing bastard..." Ron shouted, while unceremoniously pointing at the dark-haired wizard across the arena from him. "...To admit that he cheated his way into the tournament and stole my place there!" If madam Maxime was angered by this proclamation, she didn't let it show on her face. "And I want... I want... I want him to surrender everything he owns to me!" Nodding, the Beauxbaton headmistress turned her attention to Harry.

"And your conditions, Mr. Potter?" She asked.

"Mr. Weasley is to cease his libel in my address, directly or not and he is not to attack me physically, magically, politically, or in any other fashion over this matter." Madam Maxime nodded: even though she wasn't supposed to pick favorites here, she definitely liked this teen more than the red-haired 'chosen one' of the Great Britain.

"Conditions are named and accepted." She said. "Duelists, stand!" Ron assumed a poor imitation of the basic dueling stance, while Harry remained standing in a relaxed way. "Bow!" Mr. Weasley made a small nod of acknowledgment, feeling that his opponent didn't deserve anything more than this. The green-eyed teen across the arena from him didn't do much more than that either, though for a completely different reason: the young Potter was quite aware than taking one's eyes off one's opponent was the first and often the last mistake to be made in a fight. "Fight!" Madam Maxime announced, before stepping outside the wards around the arena.

Ron opened the fight by throwing a stunner in Harry's direction, but the green-eyed teen was fast on his feet and the red beam missed him by several feet. The next thing everyone saw was a bright flash of light, coming from the tip of Harry's wand... It was several seconds before anyone could see again, and now there was an apparition of a huge and scary spider – black, furry, at least six feet tall and with huge pincers dripping with what could be deadly venom – standing between the young Potter and his opponent... The moment Ron saw the apparition, he shrieked like a girl, while a wet stain appeared at the front of his trousers. Then, with a loud thud he fainted onto the arena floor, choosing blissful unconsciousness to the harsh 'reality'... Dispelling the illusion, the green-eyed teen bowed deeply for the audience.

"The winner of the duel is Mr. Potter!" Madam Maxime announced, once it was clear that the 'chosen one' was out cold... There was a moment of silence, before various students coming from all three schools started clapping, and much to Harry's surprise, Draconica was among those who started applauding first...

Somewhere in the Great hall, Barty Crouch Jr., disguised as Alastor Moody was thinking about what he had witnessed just now. And it was quite clear that the Dark Lord was right in not believing that shit about Weasley brat being 'the chosen one' that Dumbledore was spurting. On the other had, while Potter didn't show much of his skill during this thirty seconds long 'duel', it was quite clear that the boy wasn't that simple and one day may even become something dangerous to the Dark Lord. So, Junior swore to himself, he will gather as much intelligence on the Potter brat, as he could to ensure the victory for his Lord...

* * *

**AN**: As you might have noticed, I decided to re-do the duel - one of the reviews (correctly) pointed it out that Harry acted too Gryffindor-ish and not like Lord Slytherin should. Hopefully, this new version isn't even worse because of Ron losing way to quickly... Anyway, I'm keeping the old version of the duel for you, just below this AN.

* * *

Ron opened the fight by throwing a stunner in Harry's direction, but the green-eyed teen was fast on his feet and the red beam missed him by several feet. The next thing everyone saw was a bright flash of light, coming from the tip of Harry's wand... It was several seconds before anyone could see again, and now there were two Harry Potters standing on the arena: an almost solid apparition was where the green-eyed teen was seen last before the flash, and the real one was standing just out of the Ron's field of vision. And as no sounds from outside the barrier could enter the arena...

"Is that all what you got, Potter?" The redhead asked, not even thinking about looking around for anything out of place. "You're just a cheating slimy bastard! Why don't you gust give up before I humiliate you further?" Receiving no response from the illusion, Ron started sending a spell after spell at it, but Harry kept making his doppelganger dodge everything. It was a couple of minutes, before the 'chosen one' began tiring out. "Stop dodging and fight like a wizard! Or is it too much for a cheating low-life like you?"

"No, but it is much more entertaining like this." A voice to his side replied. Turning around sharply, Ron saw another Harry. Looking back at the opponent he had been fighting for the last couple of minutes, he saw that it was no longer there. Roaring angrily, the redhead brandished his wand at the green-eyed teen, but before he could even think of any incantation... "_**Corporis amoveo**_!" A bright-blue beam from Harry's wand hit him straight on his chest, but seemed to have no visible effect. "_**Offendo**_!" A simple shock-wave that threw Ron off his feet and also made it clear, what the previous spell did: it completely destroyed the young Weasley's coordination – all of his movements suddenly became so wrong, and instead of regaining his balance like he should have had done, the redhead ended on the floor in a shapeless heap. "_**Incanceros**_! I win, Weasley!" Tightly bound and gagged by ropes, Ron could raise no objection to this.

"The winner of the duel is Mr. Potter!" Madam Maxime announced, once she was sure that the 'chosen one' could do nothing to free himself from the ropes... There was a moment of silence, before various students coming from all three schools started clapping, and much to Harry's surprise, Draconica was among those who started applauding first... Just as soon as the green-eyed teen passed through the ward surrounding the arena, he was greeted by very excited Hogwarts Charms master.

"Excellent duel, Mr. Potter!" The short professor squeaked. "Most excellent! And your spellwork was fantastic..." Professor Flitwick made a short pause. "And much to my shame, I don't think I know the spell you've opened you last attack with." The edges of Harry's mouth involuntary went upwards at this.

"_**Corporis amoveo**_?" He asked, and receiving a nod from his Charms mater, continued. "This is a translated into Latin and weaponized version of **_Shinkei osai_**, a charm used by Eastern medi-wizards to heal motor nerve damage or to prevent atrophy of muscles of someone who must be kept asleep for medical reasons. The _**Corporis amoveo**_ the I used, instead of simulating a signal from brain to a muscle, for example, to raise your right arm, randomly mixes up such signals, causing your left knee to bend instead, for example."

"Fascinating!" Professor Flitwick replied: despite everything, he wasn't really familiar with the spells used half across the globe, and he really wanted to remedy this gap in his knowledge. But for some reason, at the moment he couldn't think of a polite way to ask Harry to show those to him... So he let Mr. Potter return to his friends – he will have other opportunities to learn from the teen later...

Meanwhile, Barty Crouch Jr. in disguise of Alastor Moody was thinking that his Dark Lord was right in not believing Dumbledore's mad talk about Weasley kid being the one destined to be Dark Lord's equal: the brat was pathetic, and this duel was a fine proof of it... On the other hand, Potter's unorthodox fighting strategy was something that he needed to report to his master. Yes, Junior thought, he will show his loyalty to the Dark Lord by giving him as much information about Harry Potter as he could gather!

* * *

That's all, folks!  
Leave me a **review**.


	58. Good happenings and bad news

Here's the newest chapter for the "_**Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord**_", enjoy!

*** Review response**:  
**The Sinful**, yeah, that was the spell-transformed version of that "Naruto" technique.  
**reven228**, **Zarosian Chaos**, **WritinGod05**, **Dericof Diname**, **Lord Xantos A. Fowl**, **raw666**, **Penny is wise**, **Naginator**, **ElementalMaster16**, **xArtehx**, **foggraven**, **shugokage**, **nopparitari**, **pandora vanity**, **JPElles**, **Emerald777**, **Joe Lawyer**, **twilightnemo**, **The Swordslinger**, **Artela**, **Cre A. Tor00x**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
**Zikarn Krais**, hopefully, the edited version sits better with you.  
**Danget the critic**, I do indeed plan on Harry using many 'mutated' medical spells in combat-like situations.  
**Wyrtha**, who knows, who knows... Though Fleur is neither planned nor wanted as his partner. Maybe she'll get a dance with Harry at the Yule ball, though. But nothing more than that.  
**ErikArden**, um... yeah. Gotta fix that.  
**acrazysmile**, you ask it, you get it =)

* * *

*** Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "_**Harry Potter**_" and its characters in any shape or form. Same with "_**Freezing**_" anime/manga series.

"human speech"  
"_wraith speech_"  
'_human thoughts_'  
"**powered speech / true prophecies by the seer**"  
"_**spells / parseltongue**_"  
_messages_

* * *

**chapter 58: Good happenings and bad news**

Dumbledore was sitting in his office, deep in his thoughts: his champion and the chosen one of the Great Britain had been so soundly defeated in a duel just about an hour ago. And since the duel was a public one with an independent judge, the old warlock couldn't do much to change the situation into something more favorable for him – people were going to start losing their faith in his Light because of this, and seeing that Voldemort was getting ready to return, it was unacceptable!

Trying to salvage his Greater Good and his reputation of the greatest wizard since Merlin aside, the Hogwarts headmaster was also trying to understand how Mr. Potter had won so easily for in his mind no fourth-year should be _this_ _good_ compared to his champion. Was he turning dark? It was definitely a possibility, but achieving such power so quickly without dark rituals was unheard of, and Dumbledore was sure that he would have noticed the signs that the boy had performed some. No, that was not it.

Was everything even worse? Was it possible that in place of Harry Potter there was some powerful evil entity now? The boy did go abroad this summer, and no one could guarantee that he didn't became possessed like it had happened to poor Quirinus Quirrell. And if that had happened, well, it was not a bound spirit like Voldemort's wraith as the wards he had been forced to re-activate two years ago didn't detect anything.

Dumbledore sighed again: he could not think of any plausible explanation of how Mr. Potter could possibly be better than the one, destined to be Voldemort's equal. And, despite being throwing sand in the wheels of his Greater Good, the boy wasn't doing anything actually bad. Thus, the Hogwarts headmaster chose to observe and wait, while preparing for the worst...

**~/ *** \~**

Some annoyances – like Ron, angry from the humiliating defeat he had suffered, or just general Hogwarts populace that kept buzzing about the duel – aside, Harry's Transfiguration lesson and lunch were rather uneventful, and the green-eyed teen was rather thankful for this. The Herbology was also starting like that, but about twenty minutes into the lesson this changed as a folded piece of parchment found its way onto his worktable.

Inside, there was a message from Draconica, in which she was asking for a meeting in their 'usual' place later today. And Harry wasn't quite sure how he should react to this – even though the blond witch was among the first ones to start cheering for his victory earlier today, he didn't think she had already forgiven him for whatever he had done wrong the day before... Still, the dark-haired wizard found the girl in question among their classmates and, once their eyes met, he nodded to her briefly, returning to his work before he could even see her reaction to his response.

Likely, it was just his mental tiredness from the events of the last thirty-six or so hours, but for whatever reason, the young Potter didn't really worry much about his tet-a-tet with the Malfoy heiress during the rest of the Herbology or the entirety of DADA... But once the long break before the fifth lesson started, his nervousness finally caught up with him, only growing stronger as he approached their usual meeting spot.

And even though professor Moody let them leave as soon as the bell rang today, by the time Harry reached the semi-secret passage, his Slytherin girl friend was already there, leaning against the tapestry-covered wall lightly. Seeing that he was now there as well, she pushed herself off the wall gently and turned to look into his eyes.

"Harry..." She whispered quietly as she tried to reach for him with her hand. And as the green-eyed teen did nothing to make her stop, Draconica placed her hand lightly on his chest, just over his heart. Then she pulled herself closer to him till their bodies were almost touching, yet maintaining their eye contact, her big blue-gray eyes filled with the mixture of emotions that the young Potter couldn't completely identify. "I'm sorry, Harry..." The blond witch whispered. "Back then I shouldn't have reacted like that..."

"Shh... I forgive you." The dark-haired wizard replied, unconsciously wrapping his arms around the beauty's waist and pulling her closer to himself, till her head rested on his chest. For maybe a minute the two just stood like this, both not so secretly enjoying their closeness, but then she gently extracted herself from his embrace and once again looked into his eyes.

"Thank you." She whispered softly. Then, her usual slight aloofness returned. "But, still, you should have told me that you'd do _that_." The Malfoy heiress said, referring to him making a bid for her hand. "Do you know how I felt when my father told me that I'm to marry some 'Lord of good standing' whose family name I don't even know?" Draconica berated him. Harry rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

"Well..." Even though the blond witch wasn't really angry with him anymore, the young Potter was still feeling rather uneasy as he was excusing himself. "I informed you that my contract got accepted as soon as I learned about that myself, and..." The Slytherin girl just sighed, somehow causing him to think about what else he did wrong back then. And, while it took him a couple of seconds, he got it. "And, well..." He paused, just unable to continued under the gaze of those blue-gray eyes. Noticing this, Draconica looked away from him, while some pinks appeared on her pretty face. "Maybe I shouldn't have approached you with this in public like I did..."

"Well, it certainly would have saved you from professor Snape's wrath" The blonde said after a second of silence. "I've heard he gave you quite a punishment for your supposed misdeed." She made a pause, before continuing: "Want me to talk to him? I may be able to convince him to cancel your detentions." Harry smiled at her, but he still shook his head.

"Don't. Somehow I can't see this ending well for us, given how much _professor_ Snape dislikes me. Plus, I've already made an appeal to the Board of Governors about this earlier today. Don't think that they will be able to give back those point, but they are quite likely to cancel my detentions. They actually should inform me about their decision sometime after the Aritmancy today." Draconica nodded, before quickly casting _**tempus**_ charm: the bell hadn't rang yet, but she had a feeling that the brake will end soon. And, indeed, they had only about a minute before their fifth period will start.

"Let's go?" She asked, canceling her charm. Harry answered her with a small smile, and the two of them headed towards the Arithmancy classroom, not really caring if someone saw them leaving their semi-secret meeting spot together...

* * *

In the early evening, just before the dinner was to start, a house elf delivered Harry a note from the Board of Governors – well, the only member of the board that was on 'duty' that day – saying that the detentions that Snape gave him yesterday were canceled as they were found to be excessive and against the rules. The note also said that the professor in question had been notified about the cancellation of the detentions as well, and the green-eyed teen was rather thankful for this as he sure as hell didn't fancy explaining this to Snape himself...

Unfortunately, the point that the Potions master took back then couldn't be restored without the majority of the Board of Governors voting for it – more than a day had passed since that had happened, thus making the punishment 'accepted' both by the school administrators and by the young Potter himself – but not being someone who cared much about the house points, the dark-haired wizard wasn't too upset by this.

**~/ *** \~**

The 'Daily Prophet' was yet to publish anything regarding Harry being an unwilling entree into the Triwizard tournament, but the green-eyed teen wasn't vexed by this. He did understand that even the best barristers might need more than one day to force the main wizarding Britain's newspaper to acknowledge that they weren't entirely truthful with their subscribers. And the young Potter wasn't forgetting that he gave Howard L Bridget other tasks as well...

Anyway, the morning and he afternoon passed without any out of ordinary happenings. This, though, changed in the evening with the appearance of the owls carrying a special edition of the 'Daily Prophet'. And if this wasn't unusual enough, an evening post, like the letter Harry received along with his copy of the newspaper, definitely was... Deciding that the letter is more important, the green-eyed teen read it first.

But as it turned out, the letter was just a note from Violet, saying that the situation with the 'Daily Prophet' and their article about the champions being selected was resolved. Attached to this note, was a Gringotts missive, which said that five thousands galleons were added to his Potter vault.

As for the 'Prophet', indeed, this special edition of the newspaper for the most part was about him being an unwilling entree into the Triwizard tournament, complemented by various _experts_' thoughts about this situation. And the simple fact that more than a half of these _experts_ agreed that he was forced into the tournament by some dark elements showed what a good job the L Bridgets had done...

**~/ *** \~**

For Harry, Thursday passed without any incidents and so did the Friday morning. But just as the lunch started, professor McGonagall told him that he had a visitor waiting for him in one of the 'guestrooms' on the first floor. Nodding to his head of the house, the young Potter quickly finished his meal and headed there.

The guestroom in question actually was just one of the slightly refurnished classrooms used for the meetings between those who lived in the castle and those who didn't. There was only of those unlocked at the moment, and whoever was inside was definitely waiting for him, but, still, the green-eyed teen knocked politely on the door before walking in. Almost immediately he spotted Violet sitting at the professor's table with several stacks of papers lying in front of her.

"Good day." He greeted her with a polite bow as he took a seat across the table from her. The pretty barrister returned the greeting, though she used more restrained 'Hello' instead.

"Let's get straight to the business, lord Potter." Upon his nod, she continued: "I'm very sorry, but I'm bringing you bad news today. Despite everything my father and I had done, we were unable to provide you with a way out of the tournament." The dark-haired teen was silent for a moment, obviously unhappy with this.

"There are no loopholes that would allow me to leave the competition?" He asked then. And he was rather surprised when Violet shook her head in response. Finding the proper page among the documents she had in front of her, the blond witch explained:

"Actually there is one: within twenty four hours of your name coming out of the Goblet, you could have left the tournament by ripping that parchment apart and putting it back into the fires of the Goblet. 'Eternal dishonor' as the rules say, would be your punishment, but that is nothing more than pretty words: magic wouldn't have taken any actions against you if you did that. Your schoolmates would be another thing, though, but as you appear to be on your own in this farce of the tournament, it is not a problem for you either."

"I see..." Harry breathed out. He was far from happy with this development, but he could see it in Violet's eyes – and the shadows around them – that she had done everything she could to get him out of the tournament only to fail the task. And now that she had mentioned it, he recalled some strange feeling that he had experienced right after the dinner on Tuesday. Apparently, that was Magic binding the contract between him and the damned Goblet of Fire...

"Unfortunately, that is not all, lord Potter." The pretty barrister said. "Now that you must participate in the tournament, the contract says that you also need to do your absolute best to win. Something like forfeiting a task as soon as you start it will be considered a breach of the contract will all ensuing consequences." She made pause as she handed the green-eyed wizard the pages where this rule was described. "It was added to the contract in the late fifteenth century after a rich nobleman had bribed the other champions into forfeiting all of the tasks to him." There was another short pause, before Violet continued speaking: "Thankfully for you, even if you fail a task miserably, as long as you wanted and tried to succeed in it, the contract will not be considered breached."

"I see..." The young Potter sighed. There was an uncomfortable pause then. "Well... Since I now don't have any way out of the tournament anymore, I think we should do something so that my presence doesn't screw the game up for the real champions." The blond witch nodded, and the two of them started brainstorming for the ideas...

* * *

"Is there a reason why we were summoned here?" Madame Maxime asked as she walked into the 'guestroom' with Fleur following her closely behind. Headmaster Karkarov with Victor Krum, along with the two representatives of the British Ministry for Magic arrived moments later. The Hogwarts 'delegation' – headmaster Dumbledore, Cedric Diggory and, for some strange reason, professor Moody – joined the assemblage just a couple of seconds later.

"Thank you all for coming." Harry said, starting form afar. "To those who don't know, this is Violet L Bridget, my barrister, and she agreed to help me out today. And, unfortunately, we will have to start with the bad news. Ms. Bridget and her father, despite everything they did, were unable to have me removed from the tournament..."

"Of course they were unable to." Karkarov said sarcastically. "A brat like you, Potter, will never miss a chance to hog more attention. Isn't this why you are here in the first place?" The green-eyed teen glared at the man, but didn't rise to the bait.

"I believe you are mistaken here, headmaster Karkarov." Violet said, rising to the defense of her client. "Or were you not present when lord Potter swore on his _life_ that he did not have himself entered into the tournament?" There was a short pause, before she continued: "Anyway, the reason why, despite our best attempts, we were unable to remove lord Potter from the tournament is the time limit – champions are given only twenty four hours to quit, yet this rule was buried so deep in the rulebook that it was not discovered by us until late evening yesterday." The Durmstrang headmaster wanted to say something hurtful again, but a glare from Moody told him that he should at very least let those two finish.

"Thus, I'm now magically bound to compete in the tournament. Compete and not just participate." Harry continued. "Which means, that no matter what I want, I can't even forfeit the tasks for as long as I can keep going forward, so to speak. And the same goes to all other champions: none of you is even given an option of just walking away from the task – unless I'm mistaken, this is not something that the organizers had mentioned when they were giving the instructions for the first task." Judging by the expressions on the three champions' faces, none of them were aware of this.

"While this is quite informative, I hardly see why you needed to tell us in such a haste. It could have waited until dinner, could it not?" Madam Maxime said, her eyes fixed on the young Potter.

"Well... Forgive me for wanting to have some support while talking to you all." Harry replied with a shrug. "And I'm not finished just yet; actually I just got to the most important part – the scores and the winner of the tournament." He took a deep breath, before resumed speaking: "As the Goblet does not recognize me as the second Hogwarts champion, it is quite easy to set the thing up in a way that my impact on the whole thing is minimal." From there, Violet continued for him:

"First of all, since the winner of the tournament is traditionally chosen based on the third task only, it is safe to assume that lord Potter's presence will only raise a need for some additional materials for the first two tasks..." Ludo Bagman gave an energetic nod. "Thus, during those tasks he can be scored like the other three champions."

"Ms. L Bridget say that the contract between the Goblet and the champions is considered fulfilled by Magic the moment the judges announce that the third task is complete. In other words, if by some offhand chance I manage to win the task, the one in the second place can be safely named the true winner of the tournament, regardless of which school he or she represents."

"This is ...very considerate of you, Mr. Potter." Madam Maxime said after a rather long silence. Maybe she should even forgive him for wasting her and her champion's time – the lunch break had finished by now and the 'third' lesson had already started, after all...

* * *

On his way back to the Defense classroom Barty Crouch Jr. in disguise of Alastor Moody let out a barely audible sigh of relief: his master's plan would not be compromised by this. He now just needed to ensure that the Potter brat doesn't die during the tasks. But knowing how the brat managed to live through everything the Fates had been throwing at him, he might not even need to actively involve himself in this.

* * *

That's all, folks!  
Leave me a **review**.


	59. November 1994

Alright, it was so long since I've posted the previous chapter, but the real life had been too troublesome to do any writing until the last couple of days... And so, without more further ado, here's the newest chapter for the "_**Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord**_", enjoy! I will also try to update all my other stories before the New Year, but I'm not really promising all that. Though "Antifreeze fox" will definitely have an update within a couple of days.

oh, and Merry Christmas, everyone!

*** Review response**:  
**nopparitari**, **The Sinful**, **sasha1213**, **god of all**, **emarald777**, **WritinGod05**, **ElementalMaster16**, **shugokage**, **Naginator**, **Joe Lawyer**, **JPElles**, **McGeezel**, **acrazysmile**, **Lord Xantos A. Fowl**, **Artela**, **dwarfinator**, **FractiousDay**, **Vukk**, **Grimjowx**, **twilightnemo**, **CMVreud**, **Penny is wise**, **icyheadsh0t**, **Zobx**, **ReaperxClown**, **Gruffard**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
**Zarosian Chaos**, true, though it isn't always like that: "Champions champion" is entirely about Harry getting out of the tournament.  
**kaazmiz**, here you go, a longer chapter. But, most likely, it will be a one-time occurrence. It's just I neither had enough for two standard chapters, nor did I want to split whatever I had into two parts.  
**Wyrtha**, he has to do his best. It's all about how good his best is...  
**The Swordslinger**, to be honest, I have no plans for Snape, nor do I foresee them appearing anytime soon.., Snape here is a minor character.  
**Toby860**, I do not plan for any other "Freezing" characters to appear there. As for Voldemort... I have some plans for dealing with him, but it's not the time for you to know those plans =) in other words, no spoilers!

and to my anonymous hater: such flames make me LAUGH. Honestly, do they not teach it in the school anymore that everyone is a bigot of some kind? You aren't pure either, so your accusations mean little to nothing to me.

* * *

*** Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "_**Harry Potter**_" and its characters in any shape or form. Same with "_**Freezing**_" anime/manga series.

"human speech"  
"_wraith speech_"  
'_human thoughts_'  
"**powered speech / true prophecies by the seer**"  
"_**spells / parseltongue**_"  
_messages_

* * *

**Chapter 59: November 1994**

The Saturday that week was on a Hogsmeade weekend, and Harry decided that with everything that had happened to him in the last several days he deserved a chance to relax and act like he didn't have problems up to his neck. And what is a better way to do that than visiting the village with his not-girlfriend? True, it was more of just an outing than an actual date, but the green-eyed wizard still enjoyed his morning with Draconica very much.

Just like pretty much all students who visited Hogsmeade, the two of them, joined from time to time by their Slytherin girl friends, made a round through the local shops... Eventually, it was time for some lunch and the not-couple headed to the 'Three Broomsticks, which, in both of their eyes, was the only alright pub in the village. Like always, it was quite crowded with the Hogwarts youths, but they still somehow managed to get a table just for themselves – a very welcome happening as it allowed them to continue talking more or less freely.

Of course, most of the things Harry and Draconica talked about were no more private than the next couple's small talk, but it was still very nice... Eventually, just as their lunch was ending, their conversation shifted from random topics to something much more serious. Something that the blond beauty wanted to know ever since that little misunderstanding over the contract had been cleared:

"Say, Harry, how did you manage to convince my father to accept your... proposal? Potters aren't exactly of good standing in his eyes. Actually... How did you manage to make your proposal at all without revealing your family name?" She asked while 'hugging' his right leg in between hers under the table. The green-eyed boy-wonder just 'hmm'ed' in response, causing 'Nica to glare at him halfheartedly while tightening her 'hold' on his leg.

"U-Uh, the later question is easier to answer." Harry said, giving in to the Malfoy heiress' gentle pestering. "It all was just a spell – or, rather, an enhancement – which is commonly referred to as 'recall-me-not'. You can guess what it does yourself." Getting a nod from the blonde, he continued: "Well, that's it... Thankfully, there were no precedents of using such magics on contracts in the Magical Britain – in eastern Asia, where this spell is originating from, something like this would have instantly invalidated the deal." The green-eyed teen finished smiling sheepishly.

"...Alright." Draconica continued after a pause. "And what about you being a lord of a 'house of a good standing'? Like I've said before, my father doesn't think that Potters are such house."

"And who said that we're talking about House Potter?" The dark haired teen-wizard replied with a smile, confusing the blonde beauty. Answering the question that she had on her mind, he laid his hand on the table in front of her and willed the Slytherin ring to become visible. It actually took 'Nica a couple of moments to recognize the ring.

"It's real..." She whispered, gently tracing the ring's interlacing bands of white and green gold with her slender fingers... The news that she was going to be a lady of an Ancient and Noble House shocked the blond girl into completely forgetting that she also ought to be angry at Harry for keeping this from her until now. "How?" The blond beauty asked in a whisper.

"U-Uh, well..." The green-eyed Potter began uneasily: this wasn't exactly the topic that he wanted to discuss during his 'date', but he knew he owed Draconica an explanation. After all, he did withhold some information from his friends back then in the second year... "As you may remember, the one behind the Chamber of Secrets attacks – if by proxy of his own sentient diary – was Tom Marvolo Riddle. We all know his other alias: Voldemort." The Malfoy heiress nodded, already understanding what was to come – the Dark Lord had been know as the last heir of the Slytherin line for quite some time after all.

"The right of conquest?" 'Nica asked, receiving a nod of confirmation from Harry in response.

"Yes. And it was my victory over that diary thing that allowed me to gain this lordship." Seeing confusion in the blond beauty's eyes, he elaborated: "Even by the right of conquest, Slytherin lordship can be passed only onto a male with both parents being magical... And no matter what people may say, it was my mother, who had defeated the Dark Lord back then..." He fell silent and Draconica, seeing that it still was not easy for him to talk about the night of his parents' murder, quickly nodded, before changing the topic:

"I see... And what about the tournament? Had anyone already let out what the first task will be?" Alright, maybe this topic wasn't much better, but... The young Potter shook his head.

"Surprisingly, they managed to keep everything under the wraps so far. And with everything that was going on this week, I haven't had time to look up the history of the tournament – somehow I don't think that they will break the trend, so it may give me a good idea of what to expect." The soon-to-be lade Slytherin nodded, before finishing her bottle of the butter-beer.

"If you want, I can help you with that." The green-eyed teen nodded back:

"Thank you, I'll really appreciate your help." He replied, before finishing his own butter-beer. "Say, do you need anything else in the village, or are we heading back to the castle?" The young Potter asked then. Draconica thought about it for a moment.

"What about a nice walk just outside the village?" She asked back, looking at him with her big gray eyes while cocking her head to the side cutely. Harry sighed quietly, silently wondering whether or not he will ever be able to say 'no' to her when she is like that, before offering her a hand as the two of them walked out of the 'Three Broomsticks'.

**~/ *** \~**

Whereas Saturday had been a day of relaxation for Harry, his Sunday morning was devoted to quidditch as Katie, who had adapted well to her captaincy, decided that they weren't going to waste time just because of the excitement over the Triwizard champions' selection was still running high.

Just it had been for the past three years, the practice started with a talk about the strategies, but unlike how it had been with Wood, this theoretical part was so much shorter now: Katie had no delusions about any kind of detailed strategy surviving a contact with an opposing team. So, she just told her team what general tactics she wanted them to use against the other three houses' teams.

That done, the brunette had everyone fly to the pitch and do the practical drills. Those turned out to be just as demanding as Harry remembered Oliver's to be, though, thankfully, Katie allowed him to coach the team's new seeker the way he thought was the best, instead of imposing some exercises of her own choice upon them.

After thinking about this for a moment, the young Potter decided that he should teach his protege the more aggressive flying techniques. Thus, after telling Arnold to try and keep up with him, the green-eyed teen started zooming around the pitch following some ridiculously complex trajectory at a breakneck speed...

The younger boy, despite having a slower broom and less experience with flying was doing an adequate job of tailing him, sometimes even going through the same semi-professional moves as he did. This made Harry very pleased with the thought that he had made the right choice when he chose Arnold as the team's new seeker...

* * *

After the lunch Harry and the three real champions were summoned by the tournament officials for the 'wand weighting' ceremony, which turned out to be nothing more than Mr. Olivanders making sure that their wands were working properly. Alas, as soon as the ceremony was finished, the four champions' were attacked by Rita Skeeter who wanted some interviews...

Thankfully, it looked like the witch was told that the 'Daily Prophet' didn't want another visit from the L. Bridgets and so she reigned her enthusiasm when it came to the young Potter, letting him slip from her 'grasp' when he told her that he will not give any interviews without his barrister present.

Not really knowing what to do for the rest of the day as for once all of his homework was already done, the green-eyed teen headed to the library in hopes of finding some interesting and useful magics – somehow, he didn't feel like digging though the tournament history at the moment... In the end, he settled for a tome about enchantments which was written by Constantinople mages maybe a just decade before the fall of the Lower Empire.

"Mr. Potter? Can I have a word vith you?" A voice from behind asked, causing the green-eyed teen to look away from the book. Victor Krum was standing there with his usual frown on his face. But... Did the interviewing already finish? Glancing briefly at his pocket watch, Harry saw that it already was almost an hour and a half since he had escaped from that Skeeter reporter.

"Yes?" To be honest, the young Potter was quite surprised that the Bulgarian quidditch star wanted to talk to him. Bookmarking the page he had been reading, the fourth champion closed the tome and gestured to the chair across the table from him, inviting Victor to sit there. The older teen, though, 'politely' rejected this offer with a shake of his head and remained standing.

"First ov all, I vant to thank you both for resolving the situation vith the tournament the way you did: like headmistress Maxime had said, it vas very considerate of you. And I also vant to thank you for revealing that ...fact about the contract with the Goblet. I've asked my barrister to contact yours. Hopefully together they can get something from the organizers for not mentioning this." The ever-frowning Bulgarian made a short pause. "I haven't spoken to mademoiselle Delacour or mister Diggory yet, but I think that they vill join this quest for justice as well." Harry nodded – he was actually planning to call for such cooperation himself, but was yet to do that for various reasons.

"And I thank you for your desire to help in resolving this... situation with the officials keeping back some important information from us." Having had a glimpse into how the law in Magical Britain worked, the young Potter didn't think that he could get any positive results from this quickly on his own. Now, though, with the conflict becoming an international one, the chances were, the Ministry will give in if only to save its face.

"Also. Today I saw your team training." Victor continued. "There are some pretty good fliers out there, and you vere the best of them, Mr. Potter." The younger wizard was momentary stunned by this compliment.

"Thank you, but I don't play. Not anymore. I'm just couching the new seeker. And to be honest, playing quidditch never truly was my choice for the future job." Harry replied, and for a moment Krum looked more surly than usual.

"Shame. I could have used a strong opposing seeker in my games." There was a long and rather uneasy pause as the green-eyed teen was not sure how he should respond to this... "This is all that I vanted to say and I shall not take any more of your time. Have a good evening, Mr. Potter."

"Thank you, and I wish the same for you." Victor nodded a 'thank you' and, turning around, walked away... For about a minute Harry just sat there without really doing anything. Then, shaking his head, he returned to reading the book: there still was a couple of hours before the dinner, and learning various tidbits about enchantments seemed to be by far the most productive way to spend this time.

**~/ *** \~**

Just after the dinner Harry was approached by Cedric. The Hufflepuff seventh year wanted to join the efforts for making the Ministry pay the champions' the compensation for keeping back some information about the tournament. And while his family, being of a middle class, didn't have any personal barristers, the Hogwarts champion promised that the Diggories will, if needed, pay half of the cost of L Bridget's services. The young Potter politely accepted this offer.

The next morning he also received an owl from Violet in which the blond witch was telling him that she had indeed been contacted by Victor Krum's barrister. She was also asking about what level of cooperation she should have with that man during her works related to the Ministry's fuck up with the Triwizard Tournament. Harry quickly penned Ms. L Bridget a reply, in which he mentioned that it was possible that another barrister will join the 'coalition' and promised to owl her, should that happen...

The rest of Monday passed without anything worth mentioning happening, though the dark-haired teen did make himself read a book about the early tournaments. Tuesday morning started uneventful as well, but it changed at the beginning of lunch when headmistress Maxime caught him by the Great hall doors:

"Monsieur Potter, a word with you if you will?" The French headmistress 'asked' politely. Knowing that he wasn't given an option of refusal, Harry nodded and stepped aside so that he wouldn't be creating a 'blockade' in the doors. "Thank you... Now, monsieur Krum had approached myself and mademoiselle Delacour, asking whether or not we wanted to join your collaborative efforts in getting compensations for having the champions misinformed about the nature of the contract with the Goblet of Fire." The green-eyed wizard nodded again: the Bulgarian seeker did tell him that he was going to speak with the Beauxbaton champion after all.

"Yes, Mister Krum had more or less organized the whole thing." The young Potter replied. "I was planning to do something similar, but he was faster about it." The Beauxbaton headmistress nodded: having seen how the young man in front of her fought to bring some justice back into the tournament, she wasn't at all surprised about this.

"Very well then, monsieur Potter." Madam Maxime said. "Your barrister is still mademoiselle L Bridget, right?" Upon his nod of confirmation, she continued: "Then I shall have my school's attorney contact her and join her on this ...quest for justice."

"Thank you, madam." The dark-haired teen replied with a small bow. "Your help will be most appreciated." The 'sizable' witch nodded, before dismissing him with a gesture of her hand. Harry thanked her for the promise of help again, before walking into the Great hall to finally get some lunch.

* * *

In the late afternoon, after all of his classes that day were finished, the young Potter headed to the library, just like Draconica had asked him to during their Arithmancy lesson. He wasn't the first one to arrive there, though: the Malfoy heiress got there before him, and so did Daphne and Tracey who were sharing the table with their blonde housemate. And had the green-eyed teen been surprised by the presence of the later two witches, he didn't show that... Greeting his three Slytherin girl friends with a slight bow of his head, he took an empty seat across from his 'Nica.

"Harry, we..." The blonde nodded towards the two other girls at the table. "...Have researched the past tournaments a bit, and it appears that the first task almost always has something to do with dangerous magical beasts. The task themselves may vary from bypass to capture to kill, but..." The young Potter nodded – this fit with what he himself had discovered. Then again, they were using copies of the same book in their researches, so it'd be rather strange if they got different results...

"Well, that certainly explains, why Hagrid had been in a good mood in the past days. He got new beasties to play with after all." Becoming serious again, he continued: "To be honest, the organizers make it sound like this tournament is watered down compared to the past ones, so I doubt they will have us capture or kill something really dangerous... Yet, somehow I don't think that they will refrain from using some flashy creatures to entertain the audience. So my bet is that we will have to pass by something with five 'x' in the Ministry classification."

"That certainly does sound like something that we can expect from the organizers." Daphne confirmed. There was a short pause, before she continued: "So, Harry, do you need us to couch you up for the upcoming challenge?" The Greengrass girl asked. Both Draconica and Tracey nodded, signifying that they were willing to help as well.

"Thank you, ladies, but I don't think that until we get to know more about the monsters I am to face I can do much more than learning general purpose spells to prepare myself for the upcoming task." Alas, it was indeed like that: pretty much every beast that had more than four 'x' in its Ministry classification required special approach... The Slytherin girls all nodded grimly, as they too understood this.

So, for the next forty-something minutes the four of them discussed the various ways they could find out exactly what Harry had to face on November twenty-seventh. And they all agreed that asking Hagrid will likely give them the information they needed as the half-giant seemed to be incapable of keeping a secret...

**~/ *** \~**

The week passed almost like a blur for the young Potter as he found himself once again buried to his neck with the homework, no to mention that he still needed to get ready for whatever monsters the tournament organizers had prepared for the first task. Of course, he wasn't alone there, and the Slytherin girls as well as Hermione and Neville and, sometimes, even Katie were helping him, but they still hadn't made much progress. Especially since Hagrid seemed to be much more tight-lipped these days. Thus, so far none the teens hadn't managed to get what sort of a creature Harry will be facing for the first task of that damned tournament...

The memories that the green-eyed wizard had received from the horcrux were of little use to him as well: Voldemort was never a fan of dealing with creatures, besides snakes and dementors, so his knowledge on how to handle the big beasties was not much greater than Harry's own.

Still, even if most of his being was concentrated on finding a way to survive the first task alive and with his magic intact, the young Potter couldn't help but notice that in the recent days Katie was behaving rather unusually around him: it was like she wanted to get closer, yet always stopped herself before she really did anything. And the green-eyed teen, even if was worried about his one-time girlfriend, didn't do anything about it right now – the brunette's behavior didn't appear to be harmful or dangerous, and he himself was quite busy with other things. Maybe he wasn't really a good friend, but... Oh well...

**~/ *** \~**

It was the Saturday a week before the first task, and the Gryffindor quidditch team (plus Harry) had an afternoon practice. Though, from what the green-eyed teen could see, the nervousness that was tormenting Katie in the recent weeks had reached new heights and was making it hard for the brunette to concentrate on training her team. Yet, she was doing her best to make sure that everything went as normal as possible, and the young Potter silently admired her for that.

Still, it seemed that whatever was troubling Katie was too much for the girl to handle, and a little past four in the afternoon – and less than three hours after its start – she called for the end the practice. The team, seeing that their captain was not at her best, agreed that continuing training today might not be the best idea, and so everyone headed back to the locker rooms...

Whatever was going on with his friend was quite serious if it was affecting her this much, the dark-haired wizard thought as he stood under the shower. And yet, instead of trying to help Katie with whatever was bothering her, he had spent his time making some guesswork about the tournament's first task... He really was such a bad friend...

Shaking his head, the green-eyed Potter looked around and noticed that he was the only one in the showers. Apparently, he got rather lost in his dark musings and the other boys had left the locker rooms already. He faintly remembered the Weasley twins leaving the showers as they discussed the prank they had planned for this evening; and Arnold had left soon after, claiming that he needed to finish his transfiguration essay...

Sighing, Harry silently vowed to at least try to find out what was troubling his friend so much – it was not like he had anything concrete about the first task, so he could as well do something good and useful instead of wasting his time on trying to prepare to face an unknown beasts... The dark-haired teen was about to reach for the tap and close the water when he heard a knock on the showers' door.

"A-Are you there, Harry?" A very nervous Katie asked. "C-Can we talk?"

'_Here we go... Let's hope I don't mess it up and make it all even worse for her..._' The young Potter thought. Then, closing the water, he replied: "Yeah, wait a moment, I'll get decent." Hearing the brunette mumble something like 'alright', he reached for a towel and wrapped it around his privates. "So, what did you want to... talk about?" The sight that greeted him when he opened the door almost made him lose his thoughts: here, just several feet away from him, stood flushed and prettily shy Katie with nothing but a towel on her frame.

* * *

Harry was approaching the front doors of the castle on his way from the quidditch pitch back to the Gryffindor tower, when he overheard Hagrid and professor Sprout talking to each other. Those two were discussing fertilizers – not exactly the topic that would make the green-eyed wizard stay and listen, if not for the fact that the Herbology mistress had commented about the fresh manure that they were getting at the moment.

"Yeah, it's great." The gentle half-giant agreed. "Just like those beauties that produce it. I 'ope they will let me teh show them to ma students for the classes." Now it was clear that the topic was shifting towards whatever beasts were brought there for the tournament, and the young Potter wasn't going to let such a clue about what he was going to face in the first task to slip by, so he decided to spy a bit on the two professors.

"Yes, those beasts are sure majestic, but are you sure it's a good idea to bring your students near them, Hagrid?" Professor Sprout asked. "I think that showing hippogriffs to them was quite enough; they don't need a live dragon." So, at least one of those monsters was a dragon, Harry concluded. This perspective sure didn't make him happy, but at least now he knew what was in store for him, and so he could prepare accordingly.

Yet, something was making the dark-haired teen think that the dragons won't be the only beasts for the first task: the organizers definitely were trying to make the whole thing as spectacular as possible and having the champions face more than one kind of extremely dangerous magical creatures certainly would help in achieving that...

"Maybe you're right, Pomona." Hagrid replied. "Professor Dumbledore told me dat some parents were not happy with me bringing their kids so close to, wot they called, were dangerous creatures. Honestly, hippogriffs are nice and kind if you don't insult them first, and I think children should be familiar with them and other such beauties, but I don't want to cause problems for professor Dumbledore." The Herbology mistress of Hogwarts just nodded, not wanting to upset the gentle giant with anything she might say on the matter. Then the plump witch looked up at the clock tower.

"Oh my!" She exclaimed. "It's almost six, and I'm supposed to have a meeting with my first year badgers in a couple of minutes. See you after the dinner, Hagrid, we still have those three garden-beds of yours to finish." With those words she turned around and headed towards the Hufflepuff den. The half-giant of the gamekeeper stood there for another ten or so seconds, before going towards his hut.

Harry sighed. It appeared that there will be at least one dragon that the champions will have to face for their first task. Possibly, there were other creatures as well, but he had no confirmation for that. Of course, the green-eyed Gryffindor thought to himself, he could always try using his invisibility cloak to sneak around and gather more information about the first task, but he quickly decided against it: should he get caught, the things will turn really ugly for him, even if it was highly likely that other champions already knew what they will be facing in one week time...

* * *

As it was Saturday, the dark-haired wizard decided that he could stay up late tonight and observe the Forbidden forest from the dormitory window: maybe, he'll be able to catch a glimpse of something that would give him a hint about other creatures that might have been brought for the first task by the tournament organizers.

And since he had been slacking off on his self-studies for quite some time now, the young Potter chose to spend his evening with his tomes on magical medicine. After he was done with his homework, of course... Sometime around the midnight and after almost everyone in the Gryffindor tower went to bed, Harry finally decided that it was time to start his observations and so, gathering his books, he headed back to the fourth year boys' dormitory. Putting his things back to their appropriate places in his trunk, the green-eyed wizard sat onto the windowsill and started observing the Forbidden forest...

Maybe, he should have thought things out a little bit better, as it was at least half an hour before he finally saw the dark shapes of the forest trees getting illuminated with some fire for a couple of seconds. The illumination happened once more in a couple of seconds, and then the forest was all dark again like nothing interesting was hidden there... Still, that was enough for Harry to be sure that there will be some dragons in the first task.

Deciding that he had accomplished the task he had set before himself for the night, the green-eyed wizard got off the windowsill and headed to his bed. Had he stayed for another minute, he would have noticed trees shaking from powerful gusts of wind and several lightning bolts rising above them towards the skies...

**~/ *** \~**

On Sunday afternoon Harry and his friends met again in 'their' corner of the library. Though, this time it was just him, Draconica and Hermione; Neville had been asked by professor Sprout to help her in the greenhouses, while Daphne and Tracey were finishing their Potions essays back in the Slytherin dungeons...

"So, you're saying that there will be dragons?!" The blond beauty asked rather loudly, both her face and her voice betraying her worry for her fiance. Next to her, the bushy-haired witch, while somehow remaining quiet, was showing the same if not greater concern about her friend having to face one of those mighty beasts. Sure, they all agreed that dragons might be the monsters for the first task, but back then it was just a guesswork. Now that it was confirmed, it all was quite different... Recomposing herself, 'Nica continued: "What are you planning to do about it, Harry?" The green-eyed teen was quiet for a couple of moments, before answering:

"Yeah, there will be some dragons, but I still say that it is possible that they aren't the only beasts I may have to face." Having had some time to get used to the idea that the tournament organizers had brought one of the most dangerous magical creatures for the first task, he was much calmer than the girls about the whole thing. "As for what I plan to do?.. Well, I think that my main objective will be to stay alive and in one piece, so... I will have to find a way to complete this damned task without being harmed – or, better yet, even seen – by those beasts." The Malfoy heiress nodded, quite liking the way _her_ Harry was thinking.

"So, you need to master the disillusionment charm in a week?" Hermione asked. "And I think you already know how to silence you footsteps – God knows, you boys like to sneak around in the night." The young Potter just shrugged while smiling sheepishly. "Any other spells you think you need to know for the task?" The Gryffindor witch asked then. The dark-haired wizard thought about it for a couple of seconds.

"Well, since we don't really know how magical beasts perceive the world, those camouflage spells might not really work... I will need something else to keep myself safe. A good shielding charm or, maybe, a way to transfigure a lasting wall in front of myself. Flame freezing charm would be nice too, as well as something to counteract venom." This sounded about right. Sure, he had Voldemort's knowledge about the spells to achieve most of those things, but he had never cast those before and so had no idea how they will work for him... The girls were quite agreeable with his plans; hell, Hermione appeared to be writing a schedule for his training already...

"Alright then." 'Nica said. "I shall inform Daphne and Tracey about this: they might know some magics that could be useful." After a moment of silence she continued: "And right now, why don't we find out how good you can get at casting disillusionment charm today, Harry?" She asked with a playful sparkle in her eyes.

* * *

That's all, folks!  
Leave me a **review**.


	60. The first task

Here's the newest chapter for the "_**Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord**_", enjoy!

*** Review response**:  
**shugokage**, **nopparitari**, **ElementalMaster16**, **animekingmike**, **Nanashi113**, **The Swordslinger**, **Zobx**, **lilmisadiva**, **Lord Xantos A. Fowl**, **Sithslayer69**, **Goldrune09**, **emarald777**, **kazers**, **Sk8ernv**, **Zarosian Chaos**, **skywiseskychan**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
**Gruffard**, yeah, basically the same as canon *wink*  
**Shinku Ryuuga**, I think I have said multiple times before that the story will not be continued into the fifth or any subsequent year.  
**Akuma-Heika**, not plan on implementing either of those two ideas about basilisks, but I may change my mind. **Mad Random Writer**, **acrazysmile**, **Wyrtha**, **coldblue**, As for the Katie scene - I'll leave what happened there to your imagination.  
**GunSlingerMarston**, no poll, but he second wife will indeed be discussed in the future. =)  
**Toby860**, like with **Shinku Ryuuga**'s question, I've already answered it more than once: the eye will be used in its time.  
**pandora vanity**, why do you think she dragged him out of the village?  
**Ananstra**, my bad. Will fix it (when I stop being lazy).

* * *

*** Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "_**Harry Potter**_" and its characters in any shape or form. Same with "_**Freezing**_" anime/manga series.

"human speech"  
"_wraith speech_"  
'_human thoughts_'  
"**powered speech / true prophecies by the seer**"  
"_**spells / parseltongue**_"  
_messages_

* * *

**chapter 60: The first task**

Over the last week before the Triwizard tournament's first task a large stadium was constructed near the entrance onto the Hogwarts grounds. And judging by the size of the said stadium, it was pretty clear that whatever would be there on the arena will be both spectacular and impressively big. And, taking Harry's knowledge and guesses about the beasts he might have to face while on that arena into account, it was pretty obvious that the green-eyed teen was getting more and more nervous with each passing day.

Thankfully, on Saturday morning he got several hours of break from his not-happy thoughts about this approaching 'date' with some extremely dangerous beast – somehow Katie managed to get the quidditch pitch reserved that day and the young Potter had to concentrate on training the new seeker instead... Alas, once the training session was over, Harry's thoughts were again directed towards the first task and the monsters he had to face there, in front of an audience no less...

Despite his passable skill in occlumency, by the dinner time the green-eyed wizard's nervousness had reached heights so great that a certain blond witch decided that she should take helping her intended relax in her capable ...um ...hands. Whatever she did, when young Harry was seen next, which was just a couple of minutes before the curfew, he appeared to have completely forgotten about his nervousness and had a rather silly smile on his face...

** ~/ *** \~**

The green-eyed teen's tenseness started returning bit by bit next morning, but he still managed to eat a full-course breakfast. After that, Hermione all but dragged him to the library, insisting on him finishing any of the essays he hadn't completed already. And even though spending his morning repeating the incantations for the spells he was likely to use during the first task would have been a better use of the time, doing homework kept his thoughts away from the monsters he had to face in just a couple of hours, and that was good enough for Harry...

Lunch came a bit sooner than the dark-haired wizard would have liked – the first task was scheduled right after the meal – and by the looks of it, he wasn't the only champion who was on edge: mademoiselle Delacour had barely nibbled her food and Cedric didn't appear to fare much better. And while the young Potter couldn't see Mr. Krum from his seat at the Gryffindor table, it was likely that the ever-scowling Bulgarian seeker too was quite nervous.

Once the lunch ended, the champions were instructed to follow Mr. Bagman out of the castle, and the head of the department of Magical Games and Sports led the four teens towards the back entrance of the stadium, and, once inside, he guided the champions into a small room down the corridor. The said room completely lacked any decorations and had only four spaced chairs for furniture. It also looked like some powerful sound-blocking wards were in place as no sound from the outside could be heard in the room, even with the door still open.

"Alright, sit down." Giving the teens enough time to get seated, Ludo continued: "It's time to fill you in! Right now I'mto be offering each of you this bag." He said brightly as he held up a small sack of pure silk, inside which something was moving. Something that most definitely didn't make any of the champions less nervous about the task. "From this bag you will each select a small model of the thing you are about to face! There are different... er... varieties, you see. And I have to tell you something else too... ah, yes... your task is to collect the golden egg!"

Well, at least they didn't have to fight a bloody dragon or something equally dangerous to death, Harry thought. It was a weak consolation, though, as it was highly unlike that those beasts would just let you take the fake egg from them...

"Ladies first." Bagman said, offering the bag to Fleur. The French witch put her shaking hand inside the bag and a couple of seconds pulled it back with something in it. As the Beauxbaton champion opened her palm, Harry could see a petite silvery-green snake with feathery wings and a collar with number three on it around its ...neck? The said 'snake' also appeared to be in a pretty bad mood if lightnings cracking around it were any indication... "Quetzalcoatl from Central America." Ludo commented cheerfully, which caused Fleur to glare at him as dropped into her seat.

Victor Krum was the next one to put his hand into the bag, and the young Potter noticed him grit his teeth a moment later, indicating that the surly Bulgarian got something as vicious. Harry's guess was proven correct when Victor carefully pulled his hand out of the bag, revealing a miniature dragon that had its teeth sunk into the Durmstrang champion's finger while it was clawing ever-frowning teen's palm with its tiny claws in attempt to hold onto its 'prey'. The dragon also had a collar, but with number one on it.

"Hungarian horntail dragon from Central and Eastern Europe." Bagman said, in case any of the champions didn't recognize the beast... Cedric was next, and the Hogwarts champion got himself a beast that looked like snake with split tail and dragon-like head. The collar on its neck had number two on it. "Great Wyrm from Kazakhstan steppe." In his research of the beasts that he could end up facing for the first task, Harry had came across wyrms – they were renown for their ability to manipulate earth and the viciousness that they protected their nests with. If not for the gut feeling that his own monster would be even worse, the green-eyed teen would feel sorry for Cedric. "I know this is just a formality, but, Mr. Potter..." Bagman said as he raised the silk bag. Sighing, Harry stood up and put his hand into the bag, fishing the last monster from it. Just from the feeling of nine sets of tiny teeth sinking into his skin, Harry knew exactly what he got even before he could see the beast.

"Fucking great, a hydra!" He swore as he tried to pry the damned thing off his hand. Finally succeeding in this, the green-eyed Gryffindor took a good look at the monster he had to face for the first task. The hydra had nine heads, all armed with mouthful of sharp pointy teeth, and its four legs had large sharp claws which would likely be as big as an adult human on the real thing. The hydra had thick and hard greenish-yellow scales covering its body, and its long tail ended with several huge spikes. The hydra's central head had a collar with number four on it around its neck.

"Don't worry, the model's bites aren't poisonous." Ludo reassured... Indeed, the hydras were known to have potent neuro-paralytic poisons, often also with some acidic properties, that they spit at their prey during their hunts. "And just like Mr. Potter had correctly said, this is a Great Hydra from Amazonian swamps." Mr. Bagman made a short pause before continuing: "Now, you have each pulled out the beast you will face, and the numbers refer to the order in which you are to take them on, do you see? Now, I'm going to have to leave you in a moment, because I'm commentating. Mr. Krum, you're first and are coming with me. The rest of you, I'll be locking you in this room and I will personally retrieve you when it will be your turn. Once you've completed your task and are given a clean bill of health by our healer, you will be allowed to watch other champions attempt to retrieve their own eggs."

Harry scowled: not only he got himself possibly the most dangerous of the four beasts, but he also was the last one to enter the arena, which meant that will spend the entire time of the first task either by being locked in this damn room or by trying not to become Hydra's lunch...

* * *

While the damn room had been silenced, one still could feel the ground shaking as the beasts were were trying to keep the champions' away from their nests, and this made waiting for your turn even more tortuous. And by the time Cedric was summoned to face his beasts, Fleur looked like she was going to faint at any moment. Harry himself wasn't faring much better, though concentrating on the happy thoughts about his times with Draconica was helping him a bit...

Eventually, the French champion was summoned, leaving the young Potter alone in the room. And since he knew that he was next, nothing could keep his thought off his impending encounter with the hydra. But before the green-eyed teen could work himself into a panic attack, his mind entered another state, where he didn't care anymore: come what may, there was noting that he could do to avoid participating in this trice damned task.

After what seemed like eternity, Ludo Bagman unlocked the room for the third time, indicating that it was Harry's time to face his beast. Already knowing that, the dark-haired wizard didn't need to be told what to do as he stumbled out of the room much like he was sleepwalking. The head of the department of Magical Games and Sport eyed him carefully for a moment, before shrugging and leading him to the thick iron gates that, apparently, led onto the arena.

"Your task will begin once these gates open." Ludo instructed. "And it will end either when you have retrieved the golden egg or when you're unable to continue." Harry just nodded in an absentminded way. "Good luck, Mr. Potter." With those words Mr. Bagman disappeared into a side passage, obviously trying to get back to his commentator's booth as fast as possible. Still, the young Potter had to wait for almost five minutes, before the gates in front of him opened...

* * *

As the gates opened, Harry was immediately hit by a wave of tropical heat, which was rather unexpected given how cold late November was this year. Shaking his head, the green-eyed youth examined the arena, which had been turned into a believable replica of an Amazonian swamp. The hydra's nest was located near the center of the arena and was just a huge heap of moss and old leaves with about half a dozen of greenish-brown and a single golden eggs laying haphazardly on it. The hydra itself – presumably female – was lying on the muddy ground several feet away from the nest, three of its heads keeping an eye on the nest, while the remaining six were scouting the area both for prey and possible threats to the eggs.

And since the whole arena was turned into a swamp, the young Potter found himself at a great disadvantage when compared to the other champions: their beasts all lived in the areas with solid and mostly stable ground. And let's not forget that thanks to its nine heads, hydra could look in all directions simultaneously... Shaking his head to banish the unneeded thought, Harry concentrated on finding a way to retrieved the golden egg without becoming a lunch for the beast.

"_**Accio**_ golden egg!" The dark-haired teen mouthed, attempting to summon the damned egg. Unfortunately, it looked like the tournament's organizers had thought about this and had placed an anti-summoning enhancement on the egg. Still, the young Potter thought that this was a good attempt, even if it had failed spectacularly... He could see the audience either cheering for him, or booing at him, but as he couldn't hear them, he didn't let the spectators to bother him in any way...

Alright, since his plan A had failed, it was time for the plan B. Tapping himself on the top of his head with his wand, Harry disillusioned himself, hoping beyond hope that hydra couldn't see in some part of the electromagnetic spectrum where the charm wasn't masking him. Next thing, he cast a silencing charm on himself to minimize the chance that the beast would hear him approaching. After that, the young Potter used a charm that he had found in Salazar's grimoire to make himself faster and stronger. Of course, doing something like this put a great toll on his body, but the green-eyed teen reasoned that exhaustion and possible muscle ruptures was preferable to becoming hydra's meal. Finally, Harry cast a modified feather-light charm to make himself lighter and, thus, able to walk on the water.

With all these spells cast, the green-eyed teen began creeping towards the hydra's nest, paying extra attention to doing it without creating any sounds or visual effects that could alert the monster about his presence... If he was doing it like this, why did he cast the spell to make himself stronger and faster? Simple, the spell had a pretty long incantation and required rather time-consuming wand movements – he might just not have enough time to cast it later, when he'd really need it...

When he was about ten meters away from the nest, Harry cast an illusion over the golden egg, making it look like it had disappeared. Then he quickly hid behind a thick tree, while the hydra started looking around for its lost (even if fake) egg. After several minutes of not being able to find either the egg or the thing that had taken it, the beast stopped its searches and returned to lying next to its nest.

Once the hydra had calmed down and was lo longer looking for the disappeared golden egg, the young Potter created another illusion that made it look like some sort of a creature that looked much like a cow was stuck in the swamp in the direction, opposite to where he himself was hiding. This got the hydra's attention and the nine-headed monstrosity spit some of its poison at the illusion. Thinking quickly, the green-eyed teen made the illusion play a dying animal for maybe half a minute, before making it stop moving altogether... Hydra, being no the brightest magical beast, thought that it had killed something and, standing up, headed to where it thought its future meal was. Still, at least one of its heads was always keeping an eye on the eggs.

And as the nine-headed beast was walking away form its nest, Harry slowly approached it and picked up the still hidden under his illusion golden egg that he was supposed to retrieve. Now he just needed to get out of the arena... Nodding to himself, he dropped the illusion of the dead cow and started running in zigzags towards the gates, no longer caring whether the beast could hear him or not: with being light enough to walk on the water and with the boost in speed he got from Salazar's spell, he could easily outrun the hydra, and since he was still disillusioned, the beast couldn't easily hit him with its poisonous spit... Not that it stopped it from trying, as was evident by splashed that occurred around the running teen.

After maybe twenty seconds of running like his life depended on it – which it actually did – Harry finally reached the gates. And as soon as he crossed them, they closed, ensuring that he was safe from the raging hydra... Breathing a sigh of relief, the young Potter started undoing the spells he had cast on himself, starting with the self-enhancement as he could already feel the effects of using it for too long. Next, he canceled the feather-light charm and removed the disillusionment from himself and the illusion from over the golden egg. Finally, just a couple of moments before Ludo Bagman and madam Pomfrey approached him, the green-eyed Gryffindor had removed the silencing charm he had cast onto himself.

"Congratulation on completing the task!" The head of the department of Magical Games and Sports said cheerfully. "Madam Pomfrey here will escort you to the first aid booth now..." The medi-witch indeed looked eager to get the young Potter under her care. "Meanwhile, I will have to rejoin my fellow judges so that we can give you your score." Harry just nodded, before allowing the Hogwarts nurse to guide him to her domain – his legs felt so damn tired now that he wasn't sure that could even walk without some form of a support...

After maybe three minutes of, madam Pomfrey finally brought him to the first aid booth and, as soon as she had him seated on one of the beds, she started casting diagnostic spells on him. While she was busy with those, the green-eyed teen looked around. On the bed to his right sat Fleur with her hands twitching every now and then like she been struck by a lightning – which, considering that her beast had been a Quetzalcoatl appeared to be quite possible. A bed further to the right was occupied by Cedric, who appeared to have his right leg broken and healed recently... On the bed to Harry's left Victor Krum was lying on his stomach with his back almost completely covered with an ointment to heal serious burns.

"What were you doing out there? It looks almost like you've just ran a marathon!" Before Harry could think of any reply, the medi-witch continued. "Never mind, you appear to be pretty healthy, so I'll just give you a potion that should give you your strength back." The dark-haired teen just nodded, even if he wasn't sure that this was such a great idea: after all it indeed looked like all other champions had suffered more serious damage to their health.

"**Alright, everyone!**" Ludo Bagman's magically amplified voice said. "**The judges are ready to announce Mr. Potter's scores.**" Harry could feel that the entire stadium suddenly got much quieter as no one wanted to miss anything now. "**Mr. Dumbledore?**" Since the judges all sat on the balcony above the medical booth, the green-eyed wizard could see the Hogwarts headmaster – who had Ron Weasley sitting next to him – raise his wand. A moment later a silver ribbon left Dumbledore's wand and twisted into a large figure four.

"**Methods that Mr. Potter used are neither noble nor spectacular. I can't in a right mind give him more.**" The ancient wizard commented, causing quite a few people on the tribunes to shout in discontent... Headmaster Karkaroff was next, and had decided that 'three' was the most that the young Potter was worthy of. He also didn't comment his decision. Headmistress Maxime was next, and the french witch gave Harry 'nine'.

"**While I agree with **_**headmaster**_** Dumbledore that monsieur Potter's attempt wasn't as spectacular as many might have wanted, monsieur Potter certainly did complete the task given to him, and he did without hurting the beast, its eggs, nor he was hurt by the beast.**" She commented. Mr. Crouch was the next one, and he gave Harry 'seven', refusing to comment his decision. Mr. Bagman was the last one to give scores, and he gave 'nine', apparently for the same reasons as madam Maxime.

* * *

"Congratulations, all of you, on successfully completing the first task of the Triwizard tournament." Ludo Bagman said as he entered the first aid booth several minutes later. "Now, just a quick few words before you can start enjoying a nice long break before the second task, which will take place at half past nine on the morning of February the twenty fourth." He made a pause to, possibly, add some dramatic effect to whatever he was going to say next. "But, don't think that you won't have to do anything until then: we're giving you something to think about in the meantime!.. May I?" He asked Victor.

"Of course, Mr. Bagman." The surly Bulgarian nodded.

"Thank you." Picking up Victor's egg, Ludo showed it to all of the champions. "Inside the golden egg that you have just retrieved there is a clue to what your second task will be." Indeed, around the 'equator' of the egg, there was a thick ring with relief runes on it. "You will need to open the egg first to get that clue, of course." Of course... "And solving the clue stored inside will enable you to prepare for it! All clear? Sure? Well, off you go, then!"

* * *

That's all, folks!  
Leave me a **review**.


	61. Solving the egg's riddle

Here's the newest chapter for the "_**Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord**_", enjoy!

*** Review response**:  
**animekingmike**, **Naginator**, **Gruffard**, **Goldrune09**, **JPElles**, **McGeezel**, **Toby860**, **reven228**, **Nanashi113**, **ElementalMaster16**, **Penny is wise**, **nopparitari**, **shugokage**, **Lord Xantos A. Fowl**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
**Master Procrastinator**, thanks. And to be honest, I'm not sure I've read a story with different monsters for different champions at all. Hopefully, though, such do exist, or at least will appear in the future as I'm sure such a good idea for diversity couldn't have come just to me.  
**pandora vanity**, **Wyrtha**, **Voldemort is Dead**, **emarald777**, **skywiseskychan**, **Zobx**, this chapter I tried to remove a bit of a blame from dumb-as-a-door over Harry's scoring: if you remember, the previous chapter I stated that Ronald had been in the judge's booth. Still...  
**Tommy B 101**, **Joe Lawyer**, not sure how 'full' it will be - actually this depends on how much words I get without that content - but I've planned some citrus for the next (62nd) chapter.  
**The Sinful**, lol. Another interesting way to deal with the beastie.  
**The Swordslinger**, according to wiki and some other sources, Quetzalcoatl is a god wind and (often) sky. And quite often, if it is not separated into an element of its own, lightning is made to be either a part of fire or a part of wind. I went with the later one here.  
**Kairan1979**, in order: 1) what exactly he would want to do with Weasleys? Life debts, if there is one, can't be transferred to other person that easily, and Weasley don't have anything he may need. At least now. 2) Salazar's portrait is stuck in the vault in Gringotts with a permanent sticking charm preventing its removal. And even then it can speak only parseltongue. So, unless there is another parselmouth that ministry/Dumbledore trust, they will have no way to verify Harry's claims about true Salazar. And even then, the society is just too set in their believes right now. The process of changing those will be slow and... 3) no comments here yet. 4) Sirius isn't exactly sane, who knows what goes through his head.

*** AN**: I hope that runic symbols used in this chapter display correctly for you, my readers.

* * *

*** Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "_**Harry Potter**_" and its characters in any shape or form. Same with "_**Freezing**_" anime/manga series.

"human speech"  
"_wraith speech_"  
'_human thoughts_'  
"**powered speech / true prophecies by the seer**"  
"_**spells / parseltongue**_"  
_messages_

* * *

**chapter 61: Solving the egg's riddle**

Even though the potion that madam Pomfrey gave him worked miracles, it was still almost an hour before Harry felt confident that he would reach the Gryffindor tower on his own and without any accidents – that self-enhancement he had used for the first task really did a number on his muscles. Though, considering what the beasts did to the other champions, should he really complain about merely overworking himself?

Anyway, by the time the green-eyed wizard left the first aid booth, all spectators had already left, save for Rita Skeeter, who was hanging around, looking for some juicy gossip that she could have printed in the 'Daily Prophet'. But she still remembered about not interviewing the lord Potter without his barrister present, so she let Harry be. Not that he minded this...

What was making the young wizard bit sad was the fact that he had to walk back to the castle all alone – no one was waiting for him out there to congratulate him on successfully completing the task... The moment he stepped through the castle's front doors, though, things changed: waiting for him in the antechamber there were Hermione, Neville, the Slytherin girls, almost all members of the Defense Studies group and the whole Gryffindor quidditch team, as well as the majority of the Hufflepuffs. And they all were congratulating Harry... Sure, the young 'badgers' were more interested in what he could tell them about how Cedric was doing, but that didn't make their congratulations less sincere.

Eventually, the people got their curiosity satisfied, and the young Potter, now accompanied by an entourage of his housemates, continued on his way back to the tower. Yet, as they were getting closer to their destination, the green-eyed teen's happiness about completing the first task slowly gave way to an uneasy feeling, like there will be some serious confrontation soon. And no matter how much Harry wished this feeling was wrong, it wasn't: the moment he stepped through the portrait hole, red with anger Ronald Wealsey marched up to him.

"Potter, you cowardly slimy bastard! What was that today?!" The 'chosen one' yelled, spit flying out of his mouth. "Using cheap tricks that only dirty cheating Slytherin bastards find acceptable?! You are a disgrace to the good noble house of Gryffindor!" A tick appeared on Harry's forehead – having being emotionally spent after the first task, he couldn't completely ward off the hate directed at him, and some managed to get under his skin.

"And what did you want me to do, Weasley, charge at a five-x monster with a fucking sword?" The green-eyed teen retorted in an angry voice. "Unlike _some people_..." He continued, giving Ron a pointed look. "...I'm not suicidal to do something as stupid. I'd rather use cowardly tactics and stay alive and in one piece." Alas, this confession only put the 'chosen one' out of temper.

"Why you!.." Ron's hand wend for his wand, but before he could even take aim at the dark-haired teen, the redhead found himself frozen in place with some mild paralytic curse.

"I'm off to cool down." The young Potter said, maybe harsher than necessary, as he returned his wand to its holster. Then he turned around and marched straight out of the Gryffindor common room. Hermione was the first one to recover her wits and, once she did that, she hurried after Harry, dragging Neville after herself... Their departure seemed to return quite a few other people back to reality, and another couple of moment later Katie too left the common room, intent on finding and comforting the green-eyed boy-wonder...

* * *

Even though he knew that he would not be able to do much if anything right now in his current state, Harry still headed to the library, his golden egg in his arms – it was a peaceful and quiet place where he could at very least regain comfort of his mind away from certain annoying red-haired idiots... Getting to his favorite spot in the depths of the library, the green-eyed teen placed the golden egg on the table and contemplated it.

Maybe he hadn't payed as much attention to the details before, but only now he had noticed that the surface of the egg was covered with intricate reliefs: mighty waves of a stormy ocean morphing into roaring flames of inferno, which then became rocky mountains that shifted into fluffy clouds before becoming waves again. It was beautiful...

Suddenly, Harry felt someone approach him from behind, and a moment later a pair of soft hands wrapped themselves loosely around his chest, while his head was now resting against a pair of the most wonderful breasts. Looking upwards, he saw that it indeed was Draconica holding him in her gentle embrace.

"'Nica?" He asked quietly.

"Harry, are you alright?" The gray-eyed witch asked back. "I had a sudden feeling that you needed me, and..." She trailed off, giving way to silence as they gazed into each others eyes... Finally, the young Potter 'gave in' and smiled, which earned him a chaste kiss on his lips from his blond beauty. Giving him a smile of her own, Draconica glided around him, before taking a seat in his lap, her right arm still draped over his shoulders. "So... What did upset you so much?" She asked in a low whisper as she rested herself against his chest.

"Nothing much, just_ the idiot_ managed to get under my skin." Harry replied with a sigh, causing the girl in his arms to raise her delicate eyebrow in an unspoken question. There was a moment of silence before he gave her the answer. "_He_ was saying that I dishonored Gryffindor because I didn't attack the hydra directly." The blond girl rolled her eyes: honestly, since when using one's brain was a crime? "Stay with me for a while, please." Harry asked softly as he hugged 'Nica closer, and her small smile was all the answer he needed...

Their little heaven, unfortunately, didn't last long, no matter how much they both wanted it to: not even ten minutes had passed before a certain bushy-haired witch – still dragging the Longbottom heir after her – entered the library.

"Oh, there you're, Harry!.. Oh..." Hermione fell silent as her mind registered the intimacy the two people in front of her shared. And a traitorous thought that she would like to have someone with whom she could be just like that only made a blush creep onto her cheeks. Besides her, Neville too was blushing a bit, though his thoughts were more along the lines of Harry being such a lucky bastard to have such a girl... Seeing that they were not alone anymore, Draconica slid off her love's lap and moved onto the chair next to his, though still not breaking her contact with him completely... There was a rather long silence, before Hermione finally spoke: "U-uh... Harry, are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine now." The green-eyed wizard replied "Sorry for snapping at everyone back in the common room. Our _illustrious chosen one_ just managed to make me angry with his stupid accusations of being a traitor to the house Gryffindor just because I was not acting suicidal when facing the hydra." He made a short pause before adding: "Don't worry, I won't let him get under my skin like that again."

"Alright, since we're all here,.." The soon-to-be lady Slytherin said, trying to change the topic away from the unpleasant acts of the Ronald Weasley. "Why don't we try finding out what is this golden egg all about? I find it is improbable that the champions would be made to collect it from a nesting mother just for the fun of it." She said, gesturing for Hermione and Neville to take seats across the table from Harry and herself.

"Actually, I wouldn't put it past them." The young Potter replied. "But you're right, according to Mr. Bagman, inside this egg there is a clue to the second task." He said, running his hand against the cool salient surface of the golden egg, stopping just above the ring that zoned the thing at its 'equator'. "I suppose, these runes have the answer as to how I am to open it." Indeed, otherwise, why those runes would even be there?

"Let's see them." Hermione said, pulling a piece of parchment and a self-inking quill from within her jacket. Then, the bushy-haired witch proceeded to copy the runes from the egg's ring:

ᚵᛖᛖᚺᛏᚾᛖᛈᛟᛟᛏ_ᛖᚱᛖᚺᛞᚾᚨᚹᚱᚢᛟᚤᛋᛋᛖᚱᛈᛏᛋᚢᛃᚵ

"Hm..." She sighed. "Maybe they are expecting the champions to know a bit about curse-breaking and made a little runic ward that needs to be broken before one can open the egg?" She wondered out aloud.

"Let me see." Draconica said, pulling the piece of parchment closer to herself. "Hmm... It doesn't look like something defining a proper ward. It must be something different..." After spending maybe a minute, staring at the symbols, the blond beauty gave up for the moment.

"Well, I suppose it wouldn't really be a good riddle, if one could find an answer to it in a couple of minuted." Harry remarked then. Still, he continued in his mind, it was not likely that this riddle was too hard either: after all, the champions were expected to still have some time to prepare to the second task after they have gotten the mysterious clue from the egg...

The four teens spent until dinner in the library trying to find what those runes stood for, but the Luck seemed to be not on their side this afternoon, and none of their ideas brought them any closer to opening the egg. In the end, they decided that they probably should stop for now and try brainstorming again in a couple of days with a fresh head...

As they were getting ready to leave the library and head downstairs to the Great hall for some dinner, Draconica reminded everyone that neither Daphne nor Tracey had been with them this afternoon, but should be included into solving the egg's riddle as well. Agreeing with his lady, Harry cast the _**Geminio**_ charm over Hermione's parchment, causing it to multiply into six. Of course, these copies weren't permanent, but they would last at least for a day – more than enough to copy the runes onto something that won't fade away, the young Potter thought.

**~/ *** \~**

In the following several days, thanks to the amounts of homework that the professors were giving, Harry didn't have much time to work on a solution to the egg's riddle. And those few ideas that he managed to come up with were quickly rebuffed by Hermione, who kept finding some flaws in them. Alas, the bushy-haired witch herself was having no luck with figuring out the riddle's solution either... And from what the young Potter could see, the Slytherin girls too appeared to have problems with decoding those runes.

Or it was so, until a note from Daphne during the lunch on Thursday informed the green-eyed teen that a probable solution was found. Her asking him to bring the egg with him to their meeting meant that the girls were quite sure about the result of their work...

Maybe because he was just so impatient to see what his Slytherin friends had accomplished, but the double Transfiguration seemed to drag on and on for Harry. And he could say the same about the DADA as well, even if professor Moody's lessons usually were anything but boring... When the bell from the fifth period finally rang, the dark-haired wizard quickly threw all of his things into his bag, before quickly walking up to the Gryffindor tower to fetch the egg... Still, when he finally got to the library, everyone else was already there, sitting at the group's usual table. Actually, the young Potter was a bit surprised to Astoria there as well, and for the moment he decided that she had just followed her sister there.

"So... Daphne?" The green-eyed wizard asked, trying to get straight to the answer of the egg's riddle. The older Greengrass shook her head in response.

"It was actually Tori, who came up with this." She said, while her sister beamed with the mixture of pride over her accomplishment and happiness over being recognized for it. Harry was surprised into silence for a moment: as far as he knew, second-years like Astoria didn't have Ancient Runes yet... Then Daphne decided to help him out of his confusion: "Um... Well... This little firecracker..." Tori sent her sister a glare, but it was totally ignored. "...Decided that she wanted to study runes next year, and so she started borrowing my notes. From what I know, she hadn't gotten further then just the alphabets, but maybe this is why she could solve the riddle when we all failed."

"Mhm?" The young Potter prodded. The younger of the Greengrass sisters blushed a bit, before she finally started speaking:

"Well... All of the runes in this line have a matching letter in the English alphabet." Harry had actually noticed that himself, but he paid it no mind, thinking that it was a mere coincidence – there were only so many runes without corresponding 'common' letters after all. Maybe, he shouldn't have had ignored that... "And well..." Astoria fell silent and placed a piece of parchment on the center of the table. Written on this parchment was the following line:

geehtnepoot_erehdnawruoysserptsujg

"It still doesn't make sense." The dark-haired wizard observed. "Or am I still missing something?" This time it was Daphne, who answered him.

"You should read backwards, starting from the empty space in the center." She said. Raising his eyebrow, Harry still did like she had just instructed:

"Too pen... To open the e... egg, just press you... your wand here?" As his mind finally processed the translated message, he had to resist an urge to face-palm at how those runes had misled both him and his friends into thinking that there was something more complex. Well, Astoria's solution to the riddle still could turn out to be a wrong one, but it did look better than many other ideas...

Deciding that he should test this right away, Harry rotated the golden egg till the empty space on the ring was facing him. Then, drawing his wand, he touched that empty space with it. For a very brief moment nothing happened, and the green-eyed wizard was ready to mark this as another failure at solving the riddle, but then there was a clicking sound and the top part of the egg opened up like flower.

"Be I damned." The young Potter breathed out. Peering inside, he could see a glass cylinder with thick octagonal gold stoppers on both ends and an ornate silver key inside. Around it there was a parchment, which, supposedly, contained some information about the seconds task... Before his mind could wander any further into the possibilities of what the organizers could conjure for the task, Harry was brought back to the reality by the sight of Astoria rocking nervously in her chair. "Mhm?" He 'asked'.

"I solved this riddle for you, don't I deserve a reward?" The youngest of the Greengrass sisters asked with a slight blush on her face as she tried her best at the puppy-eye technique.

"And what does the lady want?" The dark-haired wizard asked, knowing that he did owe her something for her efforts in solving the golden egg's riddle. Tori blushed madly, before mumbling her answer out:

"...A kiss." Now that was one! Sure, Harry wasn't dense enough not to know that the little witch had a crush on him, but... Not really sure how to react, he glanced at Draconica, who seemed to be just as surprised by Astoria's request. Still, the future lady Slytherin nodded slowly, trusting her intended not to take things too far. Getting the message, the green-eyed teen turned his attention back to the waiting Tori.

"A-Alright." Blushing even a deeper shade of red, if that was even possible, the young witch stood up from her chair and, raising herself on her toes and locking her hands behind her back, closed her eyes as she got ready for a deep and searing-hot kiss from her crush... A moment later her fantasy world was crashed as Harry merely brushed his lips against her cheek.

"Hey!" Tori huffed like a child not getting what she wanted. Much to everyone's amusement.

* * *

That night, Harry studied in detail the parchment from the egg. From what he could understand, the second task was going to be of an object-retrieve type. And while the supposed 'clue' didn't shed much light on what exactly he will have to face, it let the green-eyed wizard know that to complete the task he needed to collect four items, each affiliated with one of the main elements.

Deducing that the Water-element object will be placed with near or even in the Black lake was pretty easy, but at the moment the young Potter had no idea, where he will have to look for the other three. Still, as he had more than three months before the task, he decided not to worry too much about it right now: he was sure that the some other clues would be unintentionally or not dropped as the day of the task neared.

* * *

That's all, folks!  
Leave me a **review**.


	62. For Lady Slytherin

Here's the newest chapter for the "_**Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord**_", enjoy!

*** Review response**:  
**mliyanagamage**, ...or something. *wink*  
**Goldrune09**, yes, there will be Yule ball, but not this chapter. The next (63rd) one.  
**The Sinful**, **Toby860**, **Naginator**, **nopparitari**, **The Swordslinger**, **Gruffard**, **Penny is wise**, **BF110C4**, **shugokage**, **Zobx**, **twilightnemo**, **Zarosian Chaos**, **Wyrtha**, **Kairan1979**, **pandora vanity**, **Lord Xantos A. Fowl**, **MKTerra**, **Arkisenn** and **Guests**, thanks for the reviews, folks!  
**ElementalMaster16**, answered you via PM.  
**animekingmike**, you're probably right, and I will try to stop bashing him this much. But at this point just stopping is nigh impossible.  
**Zelara**, I used not just Futhark runes, so I still stand by 'no mistakes there'.  
**JPElles**, the task will be, as I've said earlier, completely different, so Harry won't really have to interact with merfolk at all.

* * *

*** Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "_**Harry Potter**_" and its characters in any shape or form. Same with "_**Freezing**_" anime/manga series.

"human speech"  
"_wraith speech_"  
'_human thoughts_'  
"**powered speech / true prophecies by the seer**"  
"_**spells / parseltongue**_"  
_messages_

* * *

**chapter 62: For Lady Slytherin**

It was Tuesday, December thirteenth, and like always on Tuesdays, fourth year Gryffindors shared Transfiguration class with their Hufflepuff year-mates the first thing in the morning. And while the lesson itself wasn't anything special – just a rehearsal for what they had studied earlier this semester – the announcement made by professor McGonagall at its end was:

"The Yule Ball is approaching: it's a traditional part of the Triwizard Tournament and an opportunity for us to socialize with our foreign guests. The ball will be open only to fourth years and above, but you may invite a younger student if you wish." The deputy headmistress said. "Dress robes will be worn, and the ball will start at eight o'clock on Christmas Day, finishing at midnight in the Great Hall. Now then, the Yule Ball is of course a chance for us all to... er... let our hair down..." Quite a few students snickered at the mental image of their ever-stern Transfiguration professor with her hair not in the usual tight bun. Professor McGonagall, though, paid those no mind and continued with the announcement: "But that does **not** mean, that we will be relaxing the standards of behavior we expect from Hogwarts students. I will be most seriously displeased if one of you embarrasses the school in any way."

There were some murmurs again, this time coming from the more festive students in the classroom: they were complaining about the staff limiting their fun during the ball. Quietly enough for professor McGonagall not to hear them clearly, of course... Then the bell rang, and while everyone wanted to pack their things and go have some lunch, the head of the Gryffindor house wasn't about to let them leave before she was finished: she still had to explain more of the ball rules to them.

"...And, Mr. Potter, a word if you please." She said after dismissing her students for lunch. Figuring that it likely had something to do with him being a champion – willing or not – Harry just nodded to Hermione and Neville, telling them that they didn't have to wait for him. Then he approached his head of the house.

"Yes, professor?" He asked, wanting to know the exact reason why he was singled out now.

"According to the established tradition, Mr. Potter, champions, and their partners open the ball." Professor McGonagall replied. "And even though you aren't representing either of the three schools, you are still a champion, and so you are expected to be opening the ball along with Mr. Diggory, Mr. Krum, mademoiselle Delacour and their dates." The green-eyed wizard just nodded in response. "I hope that you will not shame Hogwarts by being unable to find a dancing partner or by being unable to dance properly." The Scot witch said.

"Of course I will not, Ma'am." The young Potter replied: he was sure that 'Nica would not deny him the honor of having her as his date for the night. And he was equally sure that his blond minx will make sure that he is able to dance properly... There was a rather prolonged pause, before professor McGonagall spoke again:

"Very well, Mr. Potter, you may leave then." She said, dismissing him. Nodding, Harry swung his bag onto his shoulders, before leaving the classroom as he headed to the Great hall to get some lunch.

* * *

As the Gryffindor and Slytherin fourth-year students were walking towards the greenhouses, the young Potter carefully weaved his way through the 'crowd' to get next to Draconica. And as she noticed that, the blond witch knew that he wanted to talk to her; she also had a good suspicion what their little talk will be about... So, slowing down, she let her classmates get far ahead of the two of them and give them a small measure of privacy.

"Milady, may I have the honor of having you as my date for the Yule ball?" Harry asked, offering his left hand to his lady. Draconica accepted it and, giving his hand a gentle squeeze, answered:

"Of course, Harry." She said in a whisper. "I will be delighted." Giving his hand one more gently squeeze, the pretty witch let it go as she continued walking besides her intended. "Shouldn't we catch up with our classmates?" 'Nica asked then with a light smile on her face. And true to her words, the pair was indeed trailing quite some distance behind the others. Harry just nodded in response, and the two of them put on pace.

"Also," The green-eyed teen continued. "As you're going to be lady Slytherin, I think it's about time I show you some of what belongs to the house." This seemed to pick 'Nica's interest as the blonde witch cast him an intrigued glance. "Chamber of Secrets." He mouthed back to her, not daring to speak out aloud as they had almost caught up with their classmates and were within their earshot now. Receiving a nod and a smile from his lady, he continued in a whisper: "This Sunday after lunch?" Draconica nodded again.

"Works for me." Was her reply.

**~/ *** \~**

By the end of the Tuesday, everyone in the castle knew about the Yule ball, and people started actively looking for the dates. And not just the fourth years and above; some of the younger witches and wizards, who wished to attend the event, were trying to get the older students to invite them. And while Harry would rather this whole mess sorted itself out without affecting him, he was one of the champions and his relationship with 'Nica was rather secret, so quite a few girls thought that he was unattached and tried to get him as their partner for the ball.

Of course, the young Potter send all those groupies away with nothing – honestly, he had never even talked to half of them before; why would he want their advances when he had so many pretty girl friends, not to mention his beautiful intended, to chose from? – but it all annoyed the hell out of the green-eyed teen...

And let's not forget the more arrogant males annoyingly bragging to everyone within their earshot about their future conquests. Seriously, mademoiselle Delacour, despite the label bigots put on her because of her heritage, wasn't shallow enough to choose her date just for he was self-proclaimed number one man in Gryffindor or held some other equally ridiculous and self-awarded title.

* * *

Wednesday started as not a very good day, thanks to an awful snowstorm that had hit the Hogwarts grounds. The bad weather, though, did not mean that any classes were canceled, and so Harry, along with his fellow fourth-years who had chosen this subject as one of their electives, had to endure double Care for Magical Creatures outside. At least Hagrid had enough of common sense to kindle a bonfire to keep his students warm during the lesson time...

The lunch too started as nothing special, and the green-eyed wizard, having quickly finished his meal, about to leave for the Ancient Runes, when something interesting happened: Ron Weasley, well known for his gluttony, suddenly stopped eating. Wiping his mouth with his sleeve – not that it made it much cleaner as the sleeve was about just as stained as his face – he stood up and headed towards the Beauxbaton table. Gryffindors, having had to listen to the boy's boasting about being able to get the 'veela chick' as his date, all watched him intently... Even Harry decided to stay and see what will happen.

Puffing out his chest in an attempt to look more ...impressive, and failing quite miserable at it, the 'chosen one' marched up to where Fleur Delacour was sitting. And the blond witch, having felt the unusually-high attention directed at her, looked up from her meal, only to see quite a grubby lanky red-haired boy three years younger than her and as vain as a peacock eying her.

"You, go with me to the ball!" He said with his usual tact, or lack there of. At very least, he didn't call her 'veela chick', or something like that. If he did, Harry was sure, the Beauxbaton champion would have turned him into a human-torch for such offense... Meanwhile, Fleur was shocked into silence by the boys impudence. Honestly, he didn't have the decency to even greet her!

Alas, Ron, apparently being in his own world, mistook her shocked silence for not believing that someone mighty and great as him could be asking her out... His illusions were shattered to pieces a moment later when a dark and overwhelmingly powerful aura that left no doubts as to why mademoiselle Delacour was chosen as a champion of her school started seeping out of French witch. Even Ron wasn't stupid enough to mistake this for a positive response, and so wisely took a step back as Fleur rose onto her feet.

"Get lost, little boy." She said flatly, yet in a way that made it absolutely clear that she wanted nothing to do with this impudent boy. And while Ron was still rooted to the floor, shocked by her rejection – apparently, he became so arrogant that he never thought this outcome was even possible – the Beauxbaton chosen champion strode past him and out of the Great hall.

The silence reigned for maybe thirty seconds, following mademoiselle Delacour's departure, but the whispers started breaking out all 'round the Great hall, and everyone was talking about what had just happened: Ronald's poor attempt at getting himself a date for the Yule ball... And as the boy's shock over being rejected started wearing off, he noticed that people were now all talking about him, and not exactly in a positive way. So, red in his face with embarrassment, the youngest of Weasley boys stormed out of the Great hall, not so quietly cursing the Beauxbaton champion for bringing this shame upon him.

* * *

Fleur was fuming. She knew that her heritage will be causing her problems, at least until she would settle down with some man and her veela allure would no longer be acting up as it was now, and she had trained herself to stay calm and indifferent through fools' attempts to woo her to get under her skirt. But what had happened earlier today in the great hall was a bit too much... Not to mention that it didn't look like even her rejecting someone like that would stop others if they knew she had no partner for the ball.

The obvious solution, thus, was to find one. But the Beauxbaton witch sure as hell didn't want to have her date turning into a barely-coherent pile of flesh the moment she loosened her control over her allure even for the tiniest bit. And that greatly decreased the number of those, whom she would consider as her possible date... So, the blond beauty did a quick recall of the boys that, she knew, were resistant to her allure.

All three other champions were the first ones to come to her mind. But she had seen monsieur Diggory being all cozy with some Asian witch wearing Ravenclaw insignia on her uniform, while monsieur Potter had definitely chosen that blond witch from Slytherin as his mate... No matter what nasty, though not always baseless, rumors about veela were saying, Fleur resolved to never lower herself to stealing men from their women.

This obviously left monsieur Krum as her prime choice. But now that she thought about the whole situation a little bit more, the French witch was not sure that the champions were allowed to have each other as their dates for the ball. She needed to consult the rulebook of the Tournament... Thus, once she was sure she had calmed down, Fleur headed to the Hogwarts library, which was the closest place where she could find the rulebook.

* * *

Later that day, after the dinner, Fleur parted from her schoolmates as they exited the Great hall. Yet, she didn't head anywhere and just stood there, next to the hall's doors, waiting. She didn't have to wait for long as the Durmstrang delegation, led by their headmaster, walked through those doors soon enough.

"Monsieur Krum, may I 'ave a word with you, please." The blond witch said once she had caught the sight of her fellow champion and was sure that he noticed her as well... The whole mass of the Durmstrang students stopped and Victor exchanged some words with headmaster Karkarov in a language that Fleur presumed to be Bulgarian. By the end of that exchange the wizard in the white furs didn't look too happy, but he still allowed the champion of his school to have his conversation, while continuing on his way to the Durmstrang ship with the rest of his students following him there in neat rows.

"Yes, Ms. Delacour, vat did you vant to talk to me about?" The ever-scowling wizard asked then.

"This would be about the ball, monsieur Krum. I take it, you 'aven't found a date for yourself yet?" Fleur asked, receiving a nod in response. "I can see that you don't want to 'ave some fangirl as your partner, just like I don't want an incoherent pig whose only thoughts are about getting under my skirt as mine." The international quidditch star nodded again, already seeing where this all was heading to. "With that in mind, I think, we could 'elp each other by becoming each others' partners for the ball." The Beauxbaton champion said.

"Is such thing allowed?" Victor asked, unsure that this was allowed by the tournament rules.

"Apparently." Fleur replied with a nod. "I 'ave found nothing that forbids it, at very least."

"I see..." The Durmstrang wizard said. "Let me consult my own copy of the rulebook first, though. I shall give you my answer tomorrow, Ms. Delacour." The french beauty nodded in response: this was actually more than she expected from this encounter.

"Thank you."

**~/ *** \~**

Thursday and Friday passed in a bit calmer manner for Harry: after being rejected repeatedly, the groupie girls managed to finally get the idea that he didn't want them through their rather thick sculls, and so they switched to trying to get other boys' attention. That, and the general excitement that followed the announcement of the Yule ball started to die down, even if it was still number one topic of the gossip.

Speaking of the gossip, for the last two days, it seemed that everyone was talking about Victor Krum asking Fleur Delacour to be his date for the ball – that had happened just after the breakfast on Thursday morning... At first, the young Potter was as surprised by this as the next person, but after thinking about it for a little bit, he could kind of understand what made those two make such an arrangement. It certainly helped them both in getting a preferable partner for the ball...

Anyway, it was half an hour past noon of Saturday now, and the green-eyed wizard was about to head to the Great hall to get some lunch before showing the fabled Chamber of Secrets to his lady. But before he could leave the Gryffindor common room, he was approached by a very nervous Neville, who obviously wanted to ask him about something.

"What's bothering you, Nev?" The dark-haired teen asked. "Out with it." The Longbottom heir, despite such an urge on, doddered something for a bit, before managing to give his friend an intelligible answer:

"It's all about the ball, Harry." He said. "How am I supposed to ask a girl out? And what if she says 'no'? What if... ?" The green-eyed wizard sighed: even though his friend wasn't naming the object of his interest directly, it was not hard to see that Neville had his eyes on Hermione. And not just because the bushy-haired witch was their best friend – in the recent days she certainly became quite appealing girl, though not everyone could see that just yet.

"Relax, mate, she won't hurt you." Harry replied. Pausing for a moment to quickly recall, whether or not Hermione had been asked out for the ball, he added: "And I think she'll say 'yes'. And if not... Susan and Hannah seemed to be mildly interested in you, Neville." Making another pause, the young Potter continued: "But, you know, nothing at all will happen, if you just sit there overrun by your worries. Be a man and at least try asking the girl you fancy out. You might be pleasantly surprised by her answer." And not really waiting for the other boy's response, Harry walked out of the Gryffindor common room.

* * *

The lunch for the green-eyed teen passed without any incidents and, having eaten his meal quickly, he was waiting for his girlfriend just outside the Great hall soon. Draconica didn't make him wait for long as she soon emerged through the doors leading into the Great hall.

"Shall we, my lady?" Harry asked as he extended his hand to the blonde witch. She just smiled in response as she accepted his hand. The two of them ascended to the second floor then, before navigating the castle's corridors to get to the Moaning Myrtle's bathroom... Thankfully, the ghost girl was not there, so they didn't have to listen to her bitching about the hard life of a specter or whatever else might be on her mind... "_**Open.**_" The young Potter hissed in parseltongue, causing the sinks move apart, revealing a gaping entrance of a very large pipe. "_**Stairs.**_" A wave of changes ran down the pipe, turning its floor into a very long stairway. "_**Lights.**_" Right above the stairway, a line of evenly-spaced balls of cold-blue light appeared, lighting the pipe up somewhat.

"Wow." 'Nica had breathed out softly as she watched her man command the infamous Chamber of Secrets... They were about halfway down the stairway, when she spoke again: "This isn't the only entrance to the Chamber, right?" She asked, receiving a nod from Harry.

"Yes, I know three more, but this one is the most convenient and the most comfortable one that I know of..." He trailed off, but after a couple of seconds continued: "I'm quite sure that there is also a passage that connects the Chamber with lord Salazar's personal quarters in the dungeons, but I haven't been able to locate it myself, and I keep forgetting to ask his portrait about it." Draconica nodded, accepting his answer.

The rest of their way down was spent in silence, and before long, the pair stepped into what appeared to be a clean and surprisingly warm rocky cavern, lit by magical torches producing greenish-yellow light. There were no signs that less than two years ago this place had been filled with the skeletons of dead rodents and pieces of old basilisk's shed hide. Just like there were signs of Lockhart trying to perform an overpowered _**oblivate**_ spell with a faulty wand that the buffoon had 'borrowed' from Ronald.

Before long, this tunnel ended, and the pair of teenagers found themselves in front of a granite wall with a huge circular door in the center. Having seen this 'gate' for the first time, Draconica was certainly impressed, especially by the animated iron snakes that played the role of the lock. Once the door was opened, the pair continued towards their destination, passing through a short(er) corridor lit by green torches... Finally they stepped into the fabled Chamber of Secrets.

Since Harry had been spending quite a bit of his time down there, the chamber now was in a much better shape than it was two years ago, though one still couldn't say that it was in a pristine condition...

"This place is incredible." 'Nica whispered, observing the infamous chamber as she stood next to one of the massive pillars that supported the ceiling of the cavernous room.

"That it is. And once you are the lady Slytherin in the eyes of Magic, it will be yours too just as it is mine now." Harry replied as he stood besides her. He was about to say something else, but before he had a chance to do that, he found himself pushed against the pillar, and not in an exactly gentle manner. A moment later hot body of the blond minx was pressed against his as she sealed his lips with hers for a heated kiss... "Looks like I will have to postpone introducing you to the house familiar..." The young Potter breathed out once they broke for some air. Draconica just smiled in return, before kissing him again.

Not content with just the battle of their tongues, future lady Slytherin slipped her hands underneath her lover's shirt and began running them up and down his chest... Harry too wasn't idle, having busied his hands with kneading those delightful, fleshy orbs of 'Nica's derriere, making her moan into their kiss as small jolt of pleasure ran through her body...

As they continued battling for dominance with their tongues, the blond witch's hands reached his waist on their way south and, wasting no time, she started working on unbuckling his belt, while arching her back to press her breasts into his chest. In response, Harry had slipped his hands under her skirt and, pulling her panties aside, started teasing her eager holes with his fingers... Finally done with his belt, Draconica undid his pants, letting his more than just eager for action cock out. Breaking their kiss, the pretty minx looked into his eyes for several long seconds and, giving him a quick peck on his lips, started sinking onto her knees...

* * *

That's all, folks!  
Leave me a **review**.


	63. Yule ball

Dear readers, as you can surmise from this update, I'm still alive...

After God knows how long, I'm finally publishing the new chapter for the "_**Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord**_" story! Yes, I know the wait was way too long, but right now I'm experiencing some difficulties with *real life*, my mastery project to be exact, so my writing time is limited and my inspiration is on a long-term vacation. Still, I'll try updating my stories as often as I can.

*** Review response**:  
**Penny is wise**, **Rake1810**, **The Sinful**, **Naginator**, **animekingmike**, **Grimjowx**, **Lord Mortensen**, **ceo55**, **twilightnemo**, **nopparitari**, **r1ncewind1**, **Wyrtha**, **McGeezel**, **Gruffard**, **JPElles**, **Zobx**, **ElementalMaster16**, **Orchamus**, **DarkHeroV**, **thedad1961**, **kageskage176**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
**Joe Lawyer**, one, where in the seven hells did you get the idea that Neville is going with Fleur to the ball? Didn't I make it quite clear the previous chapter that Victor Krum was her date? As for Harry and Draconica, hopefully, this chapter will clear some things up for you.  
**The Swordslinger**, no, the wave of bans is over, and this story, despite having some mature content, is pretty safe as for the most part it fits well within T or even K-plus ratings.  
**Sk8ernv**, yeah, good stories (thanks for thinking about this one as one of those) are getting updated less and less often... Not that I do much to change that, but look at what I've written at the very top of the page for the reasons for the lack of updates from me.  
**Akuma-Heika**, fully uncut? I posted everything I have (save for that promised one-shot with Violet which I just cant make myself to finish) that I wrote posted here. Or is that your way of asking for more lemons? ;)  
**CMVreud**, **Kairan1979**, not sure if I will have it evolve into anything more than partners-for-convenience, but, yes, they are interesting to see together.  
**skywiseskychan**, yes, that happens you start reading the story after several chapters have already being posted...  
**Silver Heart11DOOM**, I've answered this question at least three times already. Until the end of this story, Draconica will be Harry's only wife. The spot for the lady Potter will be vacant. I may post my own musings on how inheriting lordships may work - either within some chapter or as an appendix to one, but... anyway, yes, Harry will eventually (though you won't see it) have at least two wives all to himself. )

*** AN**: Beware, this chapter contains too much vanilla stuff ^^

* * *

*** Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "_**Harry Potter**_" and its characters in any shape or form. Same with "_**Freezing**_" anime/manga series.

"human speech"  
"_wraith speech_"  
'_human thoughts_'  
"**powered speech / true prophecies by the seer**"  
"_**spells / parseltongue**_"  
_messages_

* * *

**chapter 63: Yule ball**

From the very moment when the Yule ball was announced Draconica knew that Harry would ask her to be his date. And, to be honest, the blond girl couldn't really see herself going to the ball with anyone else, yet she knew that her father would not approve them. At least without her convincing him that it all was done just to give house Malfoy some positive limelight: she'd be shining among those few opening the ball, after all...

Thus, with her 'excuse' ready in her mind, 'Nica began her preparations for the ball, desiring to have everyone impressed speechless. That task, thankfully, wasn't all too heavy as she had been gifted a very special dress robe for her birthday this year – the one she could color any way she needed with but a single simple charm. She just needed to coordinate with Harry, so that their robes don't clash. Other than that, she just needed to make sure that the two of them could dance together flawlessly, and the blond witch was quite sure that the Chamber of Secrets will prove to be fantastic place for them to practice...

* * *

Harry was surprised how the professors managed to keep the student body in check – well, mostly in check – and still studying during the last week before the Yule ball: just about everyone had nothing but the said ball on their minds. And he himself as well as his friends weren't that much different truth to tell as they too had to prepare. Or, in case of Neville and Hermione, to explore their newly-found relationship as well.

Anyway, with everyone so busy with their own preparations for the ball, it had been ridiculously easy for the young Potter and his blond partner and lover to sneak into the Chamber unnoticed for their private dancing practices.

Harry, through his memories from Tom and his own studies of pureblood customs, was quite sure that he wasn't all that bad when it came to dancing, but even he himself could see that he had improved tremendously because of these practices. Draconica was in agreement with him there, and as a show of her appreciation of his efforts, during their last practice – on the last day before the Yule ball – she had them 'practice' several rounds of 'horizontal tango' as well...

Of course, studying through the last days of the classes that semester and practicing his dancing for the ball was not all that the green-eyed wizard was doing. He was quite sure that him, a Gryffindor, having a Slytherin girl as his date will cause some outcries from the more prejudiced member of both houses, so he prepared some 'pretext' as to why he had chosen 'Nica as his dancing partner.

And just in case, he also sent an owl to Violet, telling her to keep an eye on the media, in case they decided to create some scandal from the events of the ball. In the same letter, he also asked, how the things were with collecting a dirt on Dumbledore and with the champions' collective lawsuit against the organizers of the Triwizard tournament for withholding some important information from them.

** ~/ *** \~**

Surprisingly, the morning of the Christmas day passed rather quietly. Sure, there still were some people trying to find themselves a date for the ball, but there weren't many of them, and the noise they produced could be easily ignored. Tuning out the girls worrying about not fitting into their dress robes was a bit harder, but still nothing impossible... Especially for Harry, whose mind was going over the reply he had received from Violet that morning:

The blond barrister had confirmed his suspicions that the Ministry for Magic was still doing their best to stall the lawsuit against them. And, despite the best the group of three barristers the champions had working for them, the Ministry was rather successful. Though, according to Ms. L Bridget, it was not likely that _they_ will be able to stall the lawsuit for much longer.

As for the situation with Dumbledore, well, if it was anyone else, then, according to Violet, they had evidence twice over to send that person into eternal disgrace. But as Dumbledore was worshiped like he was the second coming of Merlin by the general public, the blonde was still not sure that they had enough evidence of the man's misdeeds to oust him from either of his three major positions, much less from all three at once...

Shaking his head, Harry folded the parchment and put it into the inner pocket of his robes: the letter sure didn't have the greatest of the news in it, but... but Ms. L Bridget was doing what she could to give him the results, and it was enough for him.

* * *

Since there were no classes this day and the weather was pretty nice, the majority of the Hogwarts students went outside and had a massive snowball fight out there. The young Potter wasn't among them, though, as he chose to do some catch-up on his extracurricular reading – he had pretty much abandoned it in the recent days.

Thus, he found himself sitting on a magically-warmed windowsill of an enormous arched window overlooking the castle's yard with one of the Salazar's handwritten tomes about healing potions in his lap... Before long, he was joined by Draconica, who was holding a steaming cup of hot chocolate with her both hands. The blonde quietly took a seat at the other side of the windowsill and continued drinking her beverage in small, cute sips.

This peace and quiet lasted only for so long. Till 'Nica was done with her drink, to be precise. Once the empty cup was given to the house elf, the blond girl decided that she wanted some attention and so she started making pass at Harry by distracting him from his read. The green-eyed wizard tried to ignore his lover's sudden playfulness, but after a couple of minutes he grew tired of it. Bookmarking the page he was reading, the young Potter set the book aside and without any warning pulled his blond witch into lying atop of him, before proceeding to to tickle her mercilessly...

"So... What brought this on?" The young wizard asked, when they both had calmed down a bit. He was still sitting – more like half-lying – on the windowsill with the Salazar's book back in his hands. Draconica was lying atop of him with her head resting on his chest, her eyes closed as she enjoyed their closeness.

"It's Christmas, Harry." She replied almost lazily. "You shan't lock yourself in an old moldy book on a day like this." Moving his left hand off the tome's cover, Harry ran it up against 'Nica's flat stomach, stopping it just underneath her breasts. He didn't gave those a squeeze, though – not only they were in public, but it also was something that the blonde would want and he was still a bit annoyed at her for the interruption in his reading.

"Oh, don't worry, we will have all of the fun tonight at the ball." The green-eyed Potter replied. "...Speaking of which, we still need something to occupy our afternoon. Up for some last-minute dancing practice?" He asked, receiving a silent nod from Draconica for the answer.

**~/ *** \~**

Aside from getting a glimpse of the Great hall's decorations for the Yule ball and spending a couple of hours in an enjoyable slow dances with Draconica down in the Chamber of Secrets, Harry's afternoon passed rather quietly... At half past four, the blond witch, though, had to head back to the Slytherin common room in order to start getting ready for the ball – which was scheduled to start with a feast at seven in the evening – and the young Potter, after seeing her off, headed back to the Gryffindor tower. Of course, being a boy, he didn't need two hours to put his dress robes on, so he had some time do a bit more of his reading.

At six in the evening, though, Harry put his book aside, deciding that it was time to start getting ready for the ball himself – as a champion he was among those opening the ball and, thus, had to be down there and absolutely ready before the clock stroke seven... His costume was deep bottle-green in color and, just like Mr. L Bridget's back then, appeared to be a mixture between wizarding robes and muggle suit. It wasn't the easiest thing to put one, but the green-eyed teen still managed it with some time to spare. And he definitely looked pretty good in it, which was a good raise to his self esteem as not all of his classmates were just as lucky with their dress robes – Ronald's looked more like a dress than like robes, and the boy's attempts to rectify that only made the things worse there...

Still, as watching the Weasley boy fight a losing battle against his clothes wasn't what he had in his plans for tonight, as soon as he was ready to go, Harry left the Gryffindor tower and headed to the entrance hall... And as soon as he reached the ground floor, he was intercepted by professor Vector, who directed him towards a corner designated for the tournament's champions, where Cedric was already chatting with his date, Ravenclaw fifth-year witch Cho Chang. Greeting the Hogwarts champion, Harry leaned against the wall lightly as he settled in for waiting for Draconica...

Some five minutes later, the entire Beauxbaton delegation, walked through the castle's front doors, madam Maxime and Fleur at the head of the procession. Almost immediately they were approached by professor Vector, who exchanged some words with the French champion. Nodding to the Hogwarts' Arithmancy professor, mademoiselle Delacour parted with her schoolmates and joined Harry and Cedric in the 'champions' corner'.

Just as the last of the Beauxbaton students entered the Great hall, the Slytherin students filled into the entrance hall from the dungeons, though with how crowded the hall was getting, he couldn't see his Draconica just yet. Though he needn't to have worried about that, as not a minute later she was guided to the 'champion's corner' by professor Bubbling.

"You look stunningly beautiful tonight, milady." Harry said, after spending a moment to admire his date: she was wearing a nice malachite-green dress, and while her hair was done the same way it usually was, there now were two thin druidic braids circling around her head. Taking 'Nica's hand, he laid a brief kiss on her palm's back.

"And you look handsome yourself, mi lord." The blond beauty replied as moved to stand by the young Potter's side...

About five minutes before the ball was scheduled to begin, the Durmstrang students arrived, led by headmaster Karkarov. They too were approached by professor Vector, and soon she had Victor join the other champions... Looking over his fellow champions and their dates, Harry was now sure that he and Draconica indeed were looking the best together: Krum's full-dress version of Durmstrang uniform, which looked like red, brown and bronze version of grenadier's grand suit from seventeen century, looked rather strange next to Fleur's baby-blue satin dress; and Cedric's deep-blue suit actually clashed with bright-pink robes that Cho had chosen for herself.

His further musings were interrupted by the Hogwarts professors loudly ushering the rest of the students into the Great hall: apparently, the ball was about to start. And, indeed, once the entrance hall was clear, the champions were approached by professor McGonagall. She then told them toget in line in pairs with their partners and to follow her into the Great hall.

The walls of the hall had all been covered in sparkling silver frost, with hundreds of garlands of mistletoe and ivy crossing the starry black ceiling. The House tables had vanished; instead, there were about a hundred smaller, lantern-lit ones, each seating about a dozen people. And professor McGonagall was directing them to the large round table at the top of the hall, where the headmasters and the judges were sitting.

* * *

The evening had started with a feast. A feast that was quite different from any other that Harry had been to: everyone was given a menu, from which whatever dished that stroke one's fancy could be ordered. It was cool, the green-eyed wizard had to admit, but, likely, it gave the castle's elves so much more work... And while everyone was eating, the other three champions began comparing their schooling experiences.

At some point headmaster Karkarov even stepped in and told Victor to keep the details at minimum – the man, apparently, was afraid that the others might deduce the location of the Durmstrang castle. In turn, this made the headmasters start their own discussion about the ways of protecting the legacies they had been entrusted with when they became the heads of their respective schools... Next to them, Percy Weasley, who was attending the ball in place of his superior, Barty Crouch Sr., was doing his best to ignore Ludo Bagman's attempts to strike a conversation about the tournament's possible winners or some similar things.

Once the dinner was finished, the ball itself began. The large open area in the center of the Great hall was now bathed in a golden light, while the lanterns on the tables were dimmed... Harry offered Draconica his hand as they rose from the table. A moment later, the other two pairs too left the table, and they all headed onto the dancing floor. Once they all were ready, Dumbledore waved his wand, and the music started playing...

While he had spent a lot time waltzing with 'Nica in his arms during their practices, the dark-haired teen quickly noticed that dancing when hundreds of eyes were focused on him and his date was not as easy as it was when they were comfortably alone in the Chamber of Secrets. And by far the worst distraction were the twin hate-filled glares coming from the Dumbledore's 'chosen one' and the young Malfoy heir: both boys were quite displeased Harry and Draconica choosing each other as their dates for tonight... Still, those two could easily be ignored – and it was even easier to do with the other people – and so the two of them continued gliding across the dancing floor...

Eventually the opening dance ended, and the three pairs were give some polite applause by the audience. Then, everyone moved onto the dancing floor and the music resumed as a bit faster tune. Harry and 'Nica exchanged smiles and, adjusting their holds on each other for the new dance, began twirling across the hall again. With everyone dancing now, the pressure of being observed so attentively was lifted from the duo and they began slowly losing themselves in each other, slipping towards a more passionate and intimate, though not yet inappropriate, version of the current dance...

Their private little world, though, didn't last long and was shattered to pieces the moment the music stopped. And with being thrust back into the reality, the realization of just how physically close to each other at this moment they were came. Yet the two teens, now sporting some noticeable blushes on their faces, didn't immediately jump apart, choosing to slowly put some (very short) distance between themselves instead.

Shaking his head, Harry looked around. Much like it could have been expected, they had ended up somewhere among older students that, if they even were from Hogwarts, neither he nor Draconica had known well. Though, maybe a dozen feet away the young Potter could spy his classmate Theodore Nott with a younger and very familiar girl as his partner.

"Mhm... isn't that Tori over there?" The green-eyed wizard asked the blond beauty that he had the honor of calling his date. Without even glancing back, 'Nica replied:

"Yeah, Daphne had _insisted_ on Theodore bringing Astoria to the ball as his date." Somehow, Harry had a gut feeling that there was more to this than what his lover was sharing with him, but decided against asking for more details... Meanwhile, after a short pause the Malfoy heiress continued: "But, anyway, I think, Tori would love it if you ask her for a dance." His eyes widened a bit as the meaning of what his lady was saying registered within his mind, but she just kept talking: "And I'm sure Hermione would love as well, as would you other female friends. Just save the last dance for me, OK?" Giving him a warm smile, Draconica twirled around, before striding away towards the table with punch... Sighing lightly, Harry headed to where the younger of the Greengrass sisters was. And as he got there, the green-eyed wizard gave Theodore a polite nod for a greeting, receiving a similar nod in return.

"Heir Nott." The young Potter said. Damn, how did he hate those pureblood protocols sometimes... "Would you terribly mind if I borrow this fine young lady you have the honor of calling your date for a dance?" Before the Slytherin boy could say anything at all, Harry found himself with an armful of a very happy dark-haired girl. Sometimes, Astoria just refused to behave like a lady she was supposed to be... The two males shared a long glance, before Theodore nodded.

"Looks like I don't have a choice here." He said lightheartedly. Silently thanking the other boy, the messy-haired Gryffindor gave the exited little witch a hearty twirl. Then, moving his left hand onto her waist and taking her own left hand with his right one as was appropriate for the current dance – the music was already playing – he had them join the other students in the whirlwind of dancing.

* * *

Not a minute after Draconica had parted with her Harry, the annoyance in the form of her younger brother decided to once again enter her life. Indeed, Basilius was storming towards her, obviously ready to her a piece of his mind about her association with the last Potter. Tailing the blond boy was his betrothed, Pansy Parkinson, who looked decisively unhappy with him – she'd rather be dancing with right now. Alas...

"What do you think you're doing, associating with that half-blood bastard? What a disgrace to..." The Malfoy heir raved. Draconica, though, paid him little to no mind. Honestly, how with his level of subtlety and no cunning to speak of did her brother end up in Slytherin? On pure ambition, whatever his was? Or was it simply because he lacked the qualities of the other houses? Unlike many of her fellow dungeon Snakes, 'Nica knew and understood that Hufflepuff was not the place for 'leftovers'.

"Well, dear brother..." The blond witch replied softly. She might have not listened all that well to Basilius's rant, but she had a good idea of what it was about. "Being there, shining among those few opening the ball tonight certainly was a good way to show myself and house Malfoy off, don't you think? Besides, _lord_ Potter had been quite a nice date and, so far, he hadn't left me wanting."

Finishing her glass of punch in one go, the blond beauty turned around on her heels and started walking away, making it abundantly clear to her brother that their little talk was over, no matter what he might want. And his threats of informing their father about her supposed misdeeds did nothing to change her mind.

* * *

Bidding the Greengrass sisters a good evening – after sharing a dance with Astoria, he had one with Daphne, who had joined them by then, as well – Harry let his legs carry him around the Great hall. His rather mindless wandering didn't last quite that long though, as soon he came across another couple of very familiar faces: Neville and Hermione were sitting at one of the tables, resting a bit between the dances...

And whereas the green-eyed teen had no troubles with recognizing his male friend, it took him several seconds to understand that that pretty girl next to the young Longbottom was their normally bushy-haired Hermione. Somehow, for this night she managed to tame her hair into being almost straight and had them arranged into a neat hairdo that made her look very different from her usual self. Her pale-blue dress too was not at all like the Hogwarts uniform or muggle casual clothes that Harry normally saw his bushy-haired girl friend in.

"Man, Neville, you're one hell of a lucky bloke." Harry said as he took a seat next to his friends. Despite how his confidence has grown in the past three and a half years, the heir Longbottom still blushed and mumbled something barely intelligible in response to what his dark-haired pal said. The green-eyed Potter paid no mind to that. "Hi there, guys. Having a good time?" He received positive answers from both of his friends. They had some idle talk while the current dance was closing towards its end, and once it did... "Neville, would you mind if I dance with your lady for a bit?" And even though the boy was now known to be quite possessive – still in a good way – of his girlfriend, he nodded.

"Only for you, Harry." Nodding, the young Potter walked up to Hermione and offered her his hand.

"Milady, may I have the honor of sharing the next dance with you?" The now-not-bushy-haired witch chuckled nervously, apparently not at all used to be treated like a pure-blood princess, but accepted the offered hand.

"It'd be my pleasure, Harry."

* * *

The music had stopped, indicating that the dance was over, and the young lord Potter was escorting Hermione back to her table when, unfortunately, their path crossed with Ronald Weasley's. And the redhead appeared to be not in a good mood, which was probably why he immediately lashed out at his two classmates:

"What are you doing with the traitor, Granger! Get away from him before he corrupts you with his slimy evilness!" Then he took notice of how Hermione had her hand in Harry's – even though she was now with Neville and the two of them were kind of standing apart now, the green-eyed wizard next to her was still one of her closest friends, so it was alright. "No! You... You... You are already corrupted by his dark ways!" Turning his attention back to the young Potter, Ron continued his angry tirade: "How dare you turn Hermione evil, Potter, you bastard! Slimy traitors like you don't belong in the noble house of Gryffindor! I... -eek!"

Apparently, the brunette had grown tired of the redhead badmouthing her friends and had used a stinging hex to shut him up, while getting ready to give him a piece of her mind. Harry saw that and gently squeezed her hand to calm her down.

"Don't argue with idiots. It's unbecoming of a lady you sure will be, Hermione." He told her. Then he gave the Weasley in front of him a hard glare. "I'm not sure what is your problem there,.." What a lie – the young Potter was absolutely sure that the 'chosen one' still was on his anti-Slytherin quest. "But you shan't see that as a reason to ruin this fine lady's night."

While Harry appeared to be absolutely calm and made no movement to draw his own wand, even someone as thick as the redhead in front of him could feel that if pressed into it, the green-eyed teen would not hesitate to hex the offender of his or his friends' honor into the next century. For some very long time Ronald just glared at him, as if trying to turn him into ashes with just his eyes, but as the young Potter didn't bulge, the youngest Weasley boy eventually gave up and stalked away seething with anger or something... Harry and Hermione glanced at each other, which was followed by another round of silence.

"Well..." The dark-haired wizard finally said. "I guess, I have kept you away from Neville for far too long. Let's not keep waiting any more." The brunette just nodded and allowed him to continued escorting her back to her boyfriend.

* * *

Once Hermione was safely back with the heir Longbottom, Harry decided that it was about time he rejoined his own date – sure, there still was quite some time before the last dance of the ball, but he already felt that he had been away from Draconica for long enough. Scanning the tables nearby with his eyes, the green-eyed Potter couldn't see his blond lover anywhere, and walking around the Great hall didn't help him find her. This meant she likely was out there in the rose garden, which had been specifically created in the castle's yard for this night.

Walking through the front doors stood open, Harry found himself in the magical garden that was filled with fluttering fairy lights that were twinkling around majestic rose bushes, large stone statues or in the winding ornamental paths. He could hear splashing water, which sounded like a fountain. Here and there, people were sitting on carved benches. Or, if his eyes weren't deceiving him, at least one couple was hiding behind the bushes in the far corner of the garden, no doubt doing something rather naughty...

Ignoring them, Harry continued his searches as he walked through the garden. Soon, he found his beautiful lady, nursing a glass of punch as she sat serenely on one of those rather gaudy benches in a small alcove hidden among the rose bushes... Almost as if she felt him approaching, Draconica looked up at him with her enamoring blue-gray eyes and smiled, before moving aside a bit to give him some place to sit down to.

Without saying anything – no words were necessary – the green-eyed wizard smiled back, before taking a seat. Almost immediately he felt his blond beauty lean against him lightly with her head resting on his shoulder as he wrapped his arm around her waist... For some time hey just sat like that, enjoying their closeness to each other.

And it was this time when Harry noticed that despite everything the music from the Great hall could be heard pretty well out there, and so an idea entered this mind. He waited till the current dance ended and while the band was getting ready to start playing the next song, he gently removed his arm from around his lover's waist and gently stood up.

"Milady?" He said as he offered his hand to Draconica, who was eying him with her eyebrow raised in a silent question. Now, though, she could clearly see what was on his mind and, setting her glass on the edge of the bench, she accepted his hand as he helped her onto her feet. The music started playing again, and the couple took a stance that was appropriate for the current dance, before they started moving – almost gliding – across the paved path of the garden.

They were pretty much in their little world now – all others were either in the Great hall, or just too busy with each other to pay them any attention – so Harry and 'Nica stopped restraining themselves with inhibitions, and soon they were engrossed in their dance which became more than just that, something very intimate and full of almost erotic passion. And those were just growing stronger as the dance progressed towards its finale...

With the music in its final accords, the young Potter pulled his pretty minx closer to himself, their bodies pressing firmly against each other; and with his hands low on her waist, just like hers wrapped tightly around his upper chest, the two of them found themselves locked in a fierce kiss. A kiss that lasted until they were reminded by their bodies that they needed to breathe... Parting their heads slight, but still holding each other in a tight embrace, the two blushing teens were looking, no, staring, into each others eyes for what could as well be an eternity. Then, their lips connected again, in a much softer but just as impassioned kiss.

* * *

That's all, folks!  
Leave me a **review**.


	64. Corrupted

Dear readers, as you can surmise from this update, I'm still alive... Yes, I know it's been months since I've update any of my stories, but I was really busy between my new work and writing my diploma at university. Now that I have my computer science mastery, I finally can resume writing stories. And here's the update for the "_**Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord**_". I will try to update my other stories as soon as possible.

*** Review response**:  
**Penny is wise**, **geetac**, **Naginator**, **Dericof Diname**, **Nanashi113**, **thedad1961**, **magical fan18**, **Goldrune09**, **SilentMist121**, **Gruffard**, **r1ncewind1**, **ElementalMaster16**, **ceo55**, **Wyrtha**, **JPElles**, **McGeezel**, **acrazysmile**, **ALPHAQ69**, **Sk8ernv**, **Zobx**, **skywiseskychan**, ** 573**, **FaleronDrace**, **durararaaa**, **nopparitari**, **Gracealma**, **klare**, **Arvingen**, **Lord Jace**, **majingoku2003**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
**The Swordslinger**, well, I myself - as I've stated many times before - isn't the best romance writer out there. I'm better at generic adventure stuff.  
**Still Not Dead Yet**, **Kairan1979**, **SarahBear0627**, hehehe.  
**Akuma-Heika**, sorry. I'll do my best to bring everything here in order.  
**twilightnemo**, who knows ).  
**CMVreud**, it might actually be inspired by something similar.  
**Dragon and Sword Master**, maybe because she's among the most probable ones? Daphne and Tori are also there, though not as much.

*** AN**: Beware, this chapter still has some vanilla stuff in it ^^

* * *

*** Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "_**Harry Potter**_" and its characters in any shape or form. Same with "_**Freezing**_" anime/manga series.

"human speech"  
"_wraith speech_"  
'_human thoughts_'  
"**powered speech / true prophecies by the seer**"  
"_**spells / parseltongue**_"  
_messages_

* * *

**chapter 64: Corrupted**

Harry let out a tired but happy sigh when he finally returned to the Gryffindor common room. The Yule ball, like all prolonged social event was quite tiresome, even if he had spent the later half of it with Draconica alone in the gardens, where they didn't have to abide nearly as many restrictions on how to behave...

Still, a moment later his eyes landed on Katie who was leaning lightly against the wall not far away from portrait hole. The brunette, who looked even prettier than usual in her light-blue dress robes, appeared to be waiting for someone. To be more precise, she had been waiting for him – the young Potter learned it a moment later when the youngest of the Gryffindor Flying Foxes looked up at him while straightening herself up.

"Harry! I know that the ball may be already over, but... I haven't found you there, and... Can I have a dance with you?" Somehow, Katie managed to make her pleading eyes so big and innocent that the green-eyed wizard found himself unable to tell her 'no'. "Just one..." She added as a breathed out whisper, even if she already knew that he would dance with her. Letting out a sigh, the dark-haired teen offered the fair maiden in front of him his hand.

"Milady, may I have the honor of sharing the next dance with you?" The vixen gave him an eye-smile, as she accepted the offered hand. And somehow just knowing that Harry was giving her the lead, Katie led them towards a rather spacious and quite furniture-free corner of the common room. Absentmindedly, the green-eyed Potter noted that in this very corner a little less then a year ago his relationship with young Ms. Bell had ended ...on the less than pleasant note.

With a flick of her wand, the brunette turned on the Wizarding Wireless and soon found there a channel that was translating a Yuletide concert. Nodding to herself, the pretty witch put her wand away; and she did it in such a way to tease Harry mercilessly. Placing her hand back around his shoulders, the vixen started dancing, bringing the blushing young Potter out of the trans he had seemingly fallen into at the _show_ she had put on for him with that...

**~/ *** \~**

Draconica's arrival to the Slytherin common room was quite eventful as well, though it was not as pleasant: apparently her little brother was still of an opinion that being as much as friendly with anyone not from Slytherin was a crime. Were he the only one of such a mindset, the situation would have been an easy one to resolve. Unfortunately, there were others who believed that Gryffindors, mudbloods and blood-traitors were the root of all things evil in the world. And while, these people were just a minority, they were a very vocal minority, and it was them who gave house Slytherin the reputation it had...

"So, it looks like we have a blood-traitor in our midst." Draconica wasn't sure who had said it, but she could clearly see her smirking brother and a small crowd of likely-minded individuals around him. It looked like they thought they could punish her for the supposed misdeed of going to the ball with Harry. Almost immediately, though, this crowd found themselves facing a superior numbers of those who thought that the Malfoy heiress had done nothing wrong...

"Mhm? Is getting the _only_ lord – not a mere heir but a lord – among my peers as my date for the ball equals to being a blood-traitor these days? If I didn't know it better, I'd think that you are just jealous of me?" The blond witch said softly, but in such a way that everyone had heard her... It was both a nice retort as well as a veiled insult aimed at those who thought they were her betters and could judge her.

Indeed, at the moment Harry Potter was the only 'ringed' lord among the students of Hogwarts. And while house Potter was only a Noble one, they had a very long history and generally were well respected even by the blood purists. Some of those people even accepted Lily Evans as a somewhat worthy lady, given how prodigious the witch had been – there was no way she had been a mere muggleborn they had decided... For a moment Draconica entertained herself with an idea of telling these fools that Harry was also the current lord Slytherin, but quickly decided against it. Until she was _his lady_, only he had the right to let others know about this lordship of his.

"Well, if you have nothing else – intelligent this time, please – to say, I'll be going." The Malfoy heiress said after the silence reigned over the Slytherin common room for maybe a whole minute. Not even waiting for their response, the blonde began walking towards the door leading into the dormitory section of the dungeon. With her hand mere inches away from her wand, Draconica was ready to defend herself should anyone try cursing her. Not that anyone dared to attack her...

"Father will hear about this!" Basilius's voice stopped her in the doors: the brat was not satisfied with how the situation resolved itself and was now trying to use his strongest persuasive argument to bring her to his ways of thinking. As if something like that would work on her, the blond girl though to herself.

"Of course he will." Draconica said dismissively. She had no doubts that her brother will send a whining letter to their father, telling the man that she had been a very very bad girl tonight. But there wasn't much their father could do: at worst she'd get a scolding with a strict warning not to compromise her contract... With another roll of her shoulders the Malfoy heiress turned on her heels and disappeared towards her room in dungeon.

**~/ *** \~**

The next morning the events of the Yule ball – and one certain pairing in particular – were the main topics of the Hogwarts rumor mill. Since Harry and Draconica managed to be discrete enough with their relationship to be viewed as just associates or maybe friends, quite a few people were wondering, why the two of them went to the ball as partners? Or, if there was nothing going on between the them, why were their dances so impassioned?

There was a number of theories aiming to answer those questions, ranging from quite believable ones to outright ridiculous. Someone had even guessed correctly that Harry and Draconica were an item, but this 'theory' had been quickly dismissed in favor of the one where he had been dozed with love potions by the blond witch, so that she'd be among those opening the ball. Of course, there also was a theory in which it was him who had used _Amortenia_ of all things to get himself a girl for the event... And a whole lot more theories that were so ridiculous that the young Potter had troubles not laughing out loud as he was listening to them. And it wasn't even the end of the breakfast yet!

Then the 'Daily Prophet' arrived. Of course, the Yule Ball was the central topic of the edition, though Harry was not sure how they managed to obtain the photos as he had not seen any reporters from the 'Prophet' – or any other wizarding media for that matter – at the ball. And while this was rather troubling, the article printed on the second page of the newspaper was so much more.

"_We all remember well how the last Potter, using the magics most evil, had made everyone believe himself to be the chosen one and used this name to steal our gold and force the laws that suited his agenda, while our real savior was forced to live a substandard for his true station life. Thankfully, this evil plot had been discovered by our esteemed Chief Warlock Dumbledore, and Potter was forced to back off._

_Unfortunately, our dear readers, it looks like being caught once was not enough to make the bastard cease his despicable actions altogether. This time, he decided to drain the coffers of a prominent and well-respected family, Malfoys, by ensnaring the only daughter of the Noble house with his evil powers..._"

The article went on for another half of the page, portraying Harry in such a way that he appeared to be the source of all evil in the universe... It looked like Rita Skitter decided that she no longer wanted to be constrained about what she could write about the young lord Potter, and was now having her revenge against him for the lurid stories she had been forced not to write.

Thankfully, the young Potter was expecting something like this, and so he had no doubts that within twenty four hours Mr. L Bridget will force the retraction of this article, along with a hefty compensation from the 'Daily Prophet'. But until that happened, Harry had no doubts that he will have to deal with loads and loads of negative attention from his schoolmates for the time being...

Some damage control was in order, though. Mostly, to protect Draconica, who had never been a center of everyone's attention in such a way before. And, from the young Potter's perspective, the best solution was for the two of them to be seen together today, but in a way like they were just friends. This way, no one will be able to claim that any love potions were involved yesterday. The blond beauty immediately agreed to this plan, once Harry explained it to her after the breakfast.

* * *

Not really knowing what to do on a day like this, the green-eyed Potter proposed they have a picnic. While normally the idea of a picnic during the winter would have been rather ridiculous, even in the magical world, Harry, 'Nica and their friends, actually found themselves enjoying the nice and sunny weather as they sat on the carpet (provided by the castle's elves) on the side of the hill observing the Black lake. And with warming charms in place to keep the late December chill away from them, the teen even allowed themselves to remove their heavy winter cloaks...

Much like the dark-haired teen had hoped, seeing him with Draconica like this made the people think over what was written in the 'Prophet' this morning. And quite a few of those people came to a conclusion that Rita Skitter was pulling that story out of her ... rear. After all, if love potions had been involved, those two would either be all lovey dovey over each other or hiding from each other or at each others' throats... Either way, they wouldn't be sitting together and just chatting friendly.

Aside from that, this impromptu picnic had another effect on the inhabitants and guests of the Hogwarts castle: several groups of students, including even Beauxbatons and Durmstrangs, decided that they wanted to try this as well. By the lunch time Harry could spot at least seven other groups having their own 'picnics' all over the hill.

**~/ *** \~**

Unfortunately, only those within the Hogwarts castle got to see that the 'Daily Prophet' had printed lies about the young Potter. And as such, in the rare display of evening mail delivery, he received about a hundred owls of hate-mail during the dinner, several howlers included. Those were in the know about what those red envelopes happened to be, already moved to protect their hearing from the shouting storm that was about to commence.

It didn't, though, as Harry had hit them with animation-canceling charms as soon as he could. After all, howlers were a form of a matter animation with an added minor ward to block off external interference. And a piece of parchment, however, can contain a ward only so powerful, thus, a strong charm will be able to affect the damn shouting letter...

Stopping the howlers like that earned the green-eyed Potter quite a few thankful and even respectful looks from the students of, actually, all three schools. And had professor McGonagall not intervened, the Weasley twins would have made a spectacle by begging for Harry to teach them these awesome magics to defeat the evil letters.

The said teen, though, was too busy magically sorting through the received letter to pay them much attention. Knowing what kind of people Rita Skitter's usual readers were, he was expecting at least several letters to contain some nasty surprises. And even if there weren't any, being careful never hurt... Unfortunately, it looked like many wizards and witches of Great Britain were as bad as Harry thought them to be: out of forty three letters he had received, four will be found to be quite interesting by the DMLE.

Setting those envelopes aside and making sure no one touches them, the young Potter collected the rest of the letters and burned them with a flick of his wand till not even ashes remained – none of those were from anyone of any real importance. That done, the green-eyed teen switched his attention back to the letter he had set aside. Thankfully, for whatever reason, he had a silken bag he originally used during his horcrux hunts on him, and so the dangerous letters were quickly levitated into it. But it was too early to seal the bag and send it to the DMLE: Harry knew that it was possible that he'll receive more nasties tomorrow morning...

**~/ *** \~**

The 'Daily Prophet' that arrived the next morning with a rebuff on the article about Harry from the day before – it was quite clear to the said boy that L Bridgets had reminded the managers of the newspaper that one shan't print anything without confirming the facts from the article first... Though, those able to read between the lines could see that the managers of the 'Prophet' weren't truly sorry about this little ...mishap and, actually, only regretted the money they lost on paying the compensation to Mr. Potter.

And since this wasn't the first time when the certain witch-reporter had hurt the 'Daily Prophet' with her scandalous sensations, her contract was most likely terminated now. This morning quite a few prominent member of the Great Britain's magical community breathed a sigh of relief as they no longer had to be afraid that they'll suddenly become Skitter's newest sensation...

Anyway, the copy of the 'Prophet' aside, Harry had received quite a few letters with the morning owls. Majority of those were the hate letters that didn't quite make it to dinner yesterday (thankfully, none of those contained any nasty surprises), but there also was a letter from Violet the contents of which the green-eyed teen could guess very well – the blonde barrister was reporting her and her father's success in dealing with the 'Daily Prophet'. There also was a missive from Gringotts, which confirmed that twenty five thousands galleons had been transferred to the Potter vault yesterday. Finally, there were two letters from lord Malfoy: one addressed to Harry Potter, while the other was to his second alias, Hadrian Slytherin.

Glancing at the house Slytherin table, the green-eyed teen could see the Malfoy eagle-owl delivering a letter to Draconica, while her not-so-great little brother appeared to have a self-satisfied smirk on his face. Apparently, that letter contained Malfoy Sr.'s thoughts regarding his daughter's partner for the Yule ball... Well, if there was anything of any great importance in that letter, Harry was sure that 'Nica would fill him in. And he had his own letters from Lucius to deal with anyway...

* * *

Since the day wasn't as nice as the previous one – while it was still sunny, cold gale from north-east made it rather hard to stay outdoors for long time – the young Potter paid a quick visit to the owlry in order to send the dangerous letters to the DMLE for expertise, before heading to the library. Halfway there, though, he changed his mind and went to the arched windows overlooking the castle's yard where he had spent the morning of the day of the Yule ball... Maybe half an hour later he was found by Draconica there.

"So... Father too sent you a letter?" The blond girl asked after glancing at the envelopes that Harry had with him. The green-eyed wizard nodded in response.

"Yes, two actually." Making a short pause for a second to move a bit so that 'Nica could sit next to him, he continued: "In the one addressed to me as Harry Potter he appears to be so furious that I, lowly half-blood bastard, dared to even ask you to the ball... Actually, I think I should remind your father that despite being much younger than him, I'm still a lord of an equal standing, and disrespecting me like that does not speak well about the manners of the house Malfoy, what do you think?"

"You probably should." The blond beauty replied after several seconds. "But you should word that letter very carefully: father is known to be very short-tempered with those who, according to him, are beneath him and might do something nasty if there is as much as a veiled insult in your words." Nodding at this, Harry continued:

"Anyway, at the same time, in the letter that was addressed to me as Hadrian Slytherin, he all but begs me to marry you before you get completely corrupted by my Potter influence..." Sudden mischievous sparkles in Draconica's eyes were the only warning that the dark-haired teen got about the naughty idea the blond witch next to him had thought up...

Moving quickly and silently, almost like a ghost, 'Nica straddled him while wrapping her hands around his left one and pressing it into her assets. Then she dragged herself up against his body, still pressing his arm between her breasts, till their noses were all but touching. Then the blond vixen leaned forward and purred into his ear:

"So, am I corrupted enough?" Harry didn't even need to answer this question with words as the reaction of his body gave all the answers that Draconica needed...

* * *

That's all, folks!  
Leave me a **review**.


	65. The second task

Here's the update for the "_**Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord**_". Enjoy!

*** Review response**:  
**reven228**, **Naginator**, **shugokage**, **FaleronDrace**, **GatorLHA2**, **Wyrtha**, **Lord Jace**, **The Swordslinger**, **Sk8ernv**, **McGeezel**, **geetac**, **god of all**, **armahgeddon**, **JPElles**, **Guest** #1, **Guest** #2, **Penny is wise**, **nopparitari**, **joseph33759**, **Arkisenn**, **CMVreud**, **Halitar**, **pandora vanity**, **Naxbetissa**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
**ALPHAQ69**, you mean kill him politically? Remember that he was hurt the worst when his chocolate frog cards were canceled.  
**Dragon and Sword Master**, well, no one said that she wasn't 'corrupted' before. ^^  
**Still Not Dead Yet**, **skywiseskychan**, haha.  
**serialkeller**, I generally tend to avoid killing characters left right and center, but... Anyway, I don't remember saying about Harry becoming a badass. I said he'll get a power up (which he did). Nowhere I said that he will suddenly be loved and adored by public.

*** AN**:  
* I've finally posted that oneshot with Violet I've promised a long time ago. Link to the online and downloadable versions can be found in my profile.  
* Also, I'm happy to announce that "_**Aoki Hagane no Arpeggio**_" manga is getting its well-deserved anime adaptation. The first episode is scheduled to be on air on 30 October 2013.

* * *

*** Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "_**Harry Potter**_" and its characters in any shape or form. Same with "_**Freezing**_" anime/manga series.

"human speech"  
"_wraith speech_"  
'_human thoughts_'  
"**powered speech / true prophecies by the seer**"  
"_**spells / parseltongue**_"  
_messages_

* * *

**chapter 65: The second task**

Like it always happens, soon the infamous Hogwarts rumor mill moved on to the newer gossip topics, granting Harry and Draconica a chance to fade back into the general crowd from the spotlight they had put themselves into with the Yule ball. And while neither of them regretted going to the ball together, it was still quite nice not to be the constant center of everyone's attention...

As for the young Potter's dealings with one Lucius Malfoy, well, the green-eyed teen held two separate conversations with him. In one of those two, as a 'lord of a well-respected house' he was placating the man with promises that will still marry Draconica. But, of course, no sooner than he was ready for it... Meanwhile, in the other conversation – this one being conducted under the name of Potter – he was having a rather heated argument with Lucius regarding the said man's lack of proper respect for his fellow lord.

The head of the house Malfoy, of course, was sticking firmly to his believes that no one of a lesser blood status than his own deserved his respect in any way. And as such, he saw nothing wrong with the rude way his original letter to the young lord Potter was composed in. And he also saw himself well within his rights to reply rudely when Harry pointed out that his words were unbecomingly-impolite for a lord... In the end, after the third iteration of the argument, the green-eyed wizard just gave up, begrudgingly accepting that for him there was no quick and easy ways to make the head of the house Malfoy into a more civil converser.

* * *

Soon the new school semester began, and, like all other Hogwarts students, Harry once again had to attend the classes and do the homework he was assigned. That alone took a great deal of the free time he had been enjoying during the break. And then there was that damn Triwizard tournament he had to worry about. Sure, the second task was still almost two months away, but the dark-haired teen barely had any information about what he will be facing out there, and the tournament organizers were in no hurry to reveal any new bits of information by doing any noticeable preparations for the said task...

* * *

January passed without any major incidents happening at Hogwarts. And there still were no signs of anything being done in preparations for the second task, thus leaving Harry nowhere closer to figuring out exactly what he will be facing in a little more than three weeks than he was all the way back in December when 'Tori had solved the runes on the golden egg.

And with February already on the calendars, the green-eyed teen found himself worrying about the st. Valentine's day. What was he supposed to do with it this year? He really wanted to spend this day with Draconica, yet they couldn't afford to be seen as a couple yet – despite them going to the Yule ball together, they weren't courting. All pure-bloods from a certain circle knew that the Malfoy heiress was engaged, and her fiance wasn't him. If those bastards saw the two of them all lovey-dovey with each other, a painful and dangerous political fallout would follow, and Harry really didn't want that either for his blond vixen or for himself. If they were to spend that day together like that, they needed to be discreet...

The solution for that problem turned out to be quite simple, actually: the Chamber of Secrets. As they weren't in front of other people's eyes, no one really paid attention to the fact that the two of them had disappeared somewhere at the same time. Thus, Harry and Draconica got to spent quite a nice afternoon down there in the Chamber.

On the next day, February the fifteenth, Dumbledore made an announcement that the Astronomy lessons would be canceled for the next week. According to the old headmaster, the tower simply needed some maintaining, which was actually not that far from truth as the equipment out there definitely was a bit outdated. The young Potter, though, could read between the lines: the tower will be a part of the second task and so it was closed to the students to prevent them from learning what the said task will be. If he were to take a guess, the air element keys will be there.

Three days later, just at the beginning of the weekend, Harry learned about one other place to look for the keys during the second task. That platform being constructed near the center of the Black lake could serve no other purpose after all. Of course, there still were two more keys he didn't know where to look for yet. Sure, he had some ideas, but...

Fire element key's most likely locations were the coal storage facilities near the railway station of Hogsmeade – though, to be honest, the green-eyed teen had no idea why it was there: the Hogwarts express ran on magic and didn't need conventional fuel – somewhere around the kitchens or, possibly the disused hall that held public floos. Considering that the tournament should stay on the school grounds only, Harry and his friends agreed that the floos' hall was the most likely place for the fire key.

Earth element key was much more difficult, though, for it might be placed almost anywhere, both inside the castle and on the surrounding grounds. It might be in some room in the dungeons, or it might be in the Forbidden forest. Hell, it might be hidden under some random rock on the snow-covered grassy hill! A greenhouse full of deadly and challenging magical plants was yet another possibility... And it looked like the young Potter had no choice but to either wait for something else to give away the position of this key, or hope that the tournament organizers will be kind enough to reveal where it is just before the task...

**~/ *** \~**

The day of the second task of the Triwizard tournament finally came. And despite his best efforts, Harry still had no idea where the Earth element key will be hidden. But at least he was pretty sure about the other three and, with the help from his friends, he had developed a pretty sound plan for the task. Now, if only he could have the information about the final key...

Anyway, back to reality, the green-eyed Potter was standing next to his fellow champions in the center of the arena where they fought the magical beasts in the first task. This time, though, the arena was devoid of any simulated terrain, bar from what looked like a miniature Mayan pyramid several yards in front of the champions. On top of this pyramid, there stood a large bronze chest with four locks. Apparently, the elemental keys they were supposed to collect were needed to open this chest, and the one who would do it first, will win the task.

This guess of his was confirmed completely when Ludo Bagman announced the rules of the task. Unfortunately, the man didn't reveal the positions of the keys in his speech, but in the end that actually wasn't needed: the magical 'mirrors' installed around the arena to let the spectators follow the champions' progress were also showing the locations of the keys. Air ones were on top of the Astronomy tower, the Fire ones were indeed in the hall of floos, the Water ones were on the floating platform in the middle of the Black lake, while the Earth ones were in some clearing in the Forbidden forest. And, apparently, the champions were allowed to collect these keys in any order they wanted, which suited the green-eyed teen just fine.

Finally, after some more windy speeches by the other tournament officials, the task began. Victor Krum immediately headed towards the lake, while both Cedric and Fleur chose to go after the key in the forbidden forest first. Harry, following his plan, sped towards the castle instead. And after passing right through the front doors, he headed onto the first floor, where the hall of floos was located. To be honest, he was a bit surprised that he met no magical traps or anything else to impede his progress yet.

As it turned out, he needn't have worried as once he was two rooms away from his destination, he ran into the first trap. It was a humbling experience as he didn't even sense it before it was triggered. Thankfully, it was nothing really dangerous, just a quartet of arcane orbs rapidly firing stinging hexes at him from different angels. Still, Harry had to spend at least thirty seconds hiding behind a bubble-like magical shield, before he could continue on his way.

Trying to be more cautious now, the young Potter resumed his progress towards the Fire key. He managed to avoid triggering the next three traps, but he had to defuse the cluster of runes that was supposed to nastily shock anyone trying to open the door into the hall of floos. Quickly transfiguring some random debris into a brick to keep the door open – the runes would have wire the trap back up is he let the door close – the green-eyed teen slipped inside the dimly-lit hall. And immediately found the world around him freezing with fear as a good dozen of dementors began swarming upon him.

"_**Expecto patronum!**_" Harry shouted, casting the only spell known to be able to protect you from those foul beasts. And while it was very taxing, he managed to summon his patronus at its full power. The strange serpent-like creature let out a soundless cry, before charging at the closest dementor, wrapping its clawed arms around the thing and throwing as far away as it could.

While his patronus was brutally pushing the dementors away, the young Potter managed to relax a bit and analyze the situation a bit more rationally. And it became clear to him that he was not facing the real guards of the Azkaban prison but rather their imitations created by boggarts... Shaking his head slightly, the dark-haired teen began casting '_**riddikulus**_' charm while thinking of dementors in clown make-ups being hit by various pies thrown at them.

It took him some time to deal with all fourteen boggarts, but in the end Harry emerged victorious. And seeing no other immediate threats, the dark-haired teen dismissed his patronus and began cautiously walking towards an ornate stand at the far end of the hall – he could see the four identical Fire keys there...

Just as he passed the middle of the room, the fireplaces on both sides of the room suddenly lit up with ghostly-blue flames, making the young Potter jump in surprise. But seeing as _it_ wasn't going to attack him just yet, he continued creeping towards the stand with the keys... Much to his surprise, he couldn't detect any traps around the stand, nor on the keys themselves. Shrugging at it, he picked one of the keys and began carefully walking towards the exit from the hall.

Just as he once again passed the middle of the hall, those ghostly-blue flames in the fireplaces roared and started spitting a large number of fireballs in random directions. Once again forced to hide behind his magical shield, Harry waited for the firestorm around him to calm down. Unfortunately, it looked didn't look like the fireplaces will run out of magic any time soon... Sighing in annoyance from finding himself in a situation like this, Harry waited till most or the randomly-fired fireballs were flying not in his direction. Then, he dropped his shield and quickly cast the most powerful protective charms against fire he knew, before darting towards the exit from the hall.

It looked like Luck was on his side here, and only a few fireballs hit him, scorching his clothes a bit, but otherwise doing no damage. But as soon as he was out of the hall, the young Potter found himself face to face with a large box floating about the level of his head. And before he could even blink, the side of the box that was facing him opened, releasing the contents of the box.

'_Maybe I should thank Dudley for this..._' Harry thought: apparently those countless 'Harry hunts' that his cousin liked to organize when they all still lived at the Privet drive did give the green-eyed wizard some good reflexes. Otherwise, he was sure he wouldn't have dodged the boxing glove on a spring that shot at him form the box...

* * *

The green-eyed teen managed to reach the Astronomy tower quickly and without any problems. And while he really wasn't expecting any traps on he routes between the key locations, he was still pleasantly surprised that there indeed weren't any... Quickly covering the final flight of the stairs – he had checked it for any magical traps already – the young Potter found himself standing right in front of the door leading onto the tower's roof.

Surprisingly enough, there also weren't any magical traps activated when someone either touched the doorknob or opened the door. Oh, well... Shrugging at this revelation, Harry carefully opened the door and walked onto the top part of the tower. And he immediately found himself in a thick cloud of obviously-magical fog that completely hid whatever was located in the center of the roof. This fog was so think that the dark-haired teen could barely see the fingers of his extended hand.

"_**Finite incantatem!**_" The green-eyed Potter cast, hoping to deal with the magical fog. Nothing happened: the fog remained as thick as it was moments ago. "Well, duh." He sighed. Apparently, it won't be this easy, and he'll need to bring out more 'big guns'. "_**Ventus!**_" A powerful gust of wind left his wand, but, again, it failed to produce any visible results. He tried again, this time pouring even more power into his spell, but once again, the damn fog remained right where it was. This was rather baffling, as a wind magic even as weak as this one should have blown the fog away, even if just a little bit. So, this was something else.

Suddenly, a thought occurred to the dark-haired wizard: there was no fog on the 'mirror' when he was back at the arena. And if it was created after the task started – assuming it was indeed a real fog – would the spectators still be able to see anything going on up there? That was rather unlikely. Which left only one option: this fog was nothing more than illusion he got caught in. Or, in other words, he was simply hallucinating this fog... This was a good idea, but it left Harry with one big problem: he had no idea how get himself out of this illusion.

It took the young Potter several tries, but in the end he managed to find a counter-curse to partially remove the fog. Maybe he shouldn't have had... After all, with the fog no longer as thick he could see a big number of menacing silhouettes surrounding him. Some looked like dragons or their lesser brethren. Others appeared to be some sort of gargoyles, while the rest didn't even a definite shape. And all of these silhouettes were slowly circling around him, sometimes coming a bit closer – but not close enough for him to see them clearly – sometimes backing away till they were barely visible in the still-present fog.

So, more illusions? Harry raised his wand to try another counter in order to dispel this hallucination, but before he could do anything, one of the silhouettes rushed towards him, moving so fast that it appeared as a gray blur. And it hit him, making him stumble a couple of steps back from the sheer force of the hit...

'_What was that?_' Harry thought. After all, the illusions were supposed to be intangible. Either this was a very powerful hallucination that affected more than one sense, of there was some serious spell-work involved. Something like those arcane orbs, but shooting concentrated blasts of wind, working in perfect synchronization with the movements of illusionary beasts. Deciding that the second variant was more likely, Harry tried to think of a way to extract himself from the situation he found himself in – the beasts' 'hits' did prevent him from casting anything after all, but as long as he didn't try to do any magic, the illusionary monsters didn't attack him.

Since he couldn't do anything while on the roof, the green-eyed teen stepped back inside the tower and enchanted his robes to hold a moderately-powerful shielding charm. An enchantment like this wouldn't last very long – half an hour at most – but Harry was positive that he wouldn't need it for even that long. Hoping that his plan would work, the young wizard returned onto the roof, only to find out that the fog returned to its original state.

Annoyed by this really minor setback for some reason, the young Potter tried the specific counter he used the previous time... Only to find out that it didn't work anymore. Gritting his teeth in frustration, he started going through other possible counters. After a couple of minutes, he finally found the one which canceled the original fog illusion this time, leaving him once again surrounded by beastly silhouettes lurking in the still-thick fog.

"_**Finite incantatem!**_" Ignoring the wind spell hitting his shield, he fired at the approaching silhouette. A moment later he was rewarded by the sound of something dissipating... So, yes, this was indeed a simple visual illusion with some charms behind it to make one think that the 'monsters' could hit for real. A couple of seconds passed, and Harry could hear the arcane orb he had just dispelled returning back to existence. Damn! Whoever did this spell-work was really an outstanding charms master.

Ah, whatever, the dark-haired teen decided. If he couldn't deal with the 'offensive' magics supplementing the illusion, he could just deal with the said illusion first – hopefully the arcane orbs would dissipate on their own after that... Once again, it took him more than just a few tries to find the right counter, but in the end Harry was finally free from those hallucinations and could now see the roof of the Astronomy tower clearly.

It was now completely bare, save for a single metal object in the very center of the roof. This object looked like a flattened half-sphere about a meter in diameter and only half-a-meter in height. Since he could see nothing else there, the young Potter assumed that the keys should be somehow inside this construct, and so he approached it. Indeed, on its top, the metal blob had four holes sealed with glass panels; and on the bottom of each hole there was an Air element key. Now Harry only needed to find a way to get his key out of it hole.

He tried vanishing the glass, but it didn't work. Trying to levitate it away also produced no results. Likewise, none of the many unlocking charms he had tired produced any positive results. Irritated by this, the young Potter hit the glass with his fist and was rewarded with a multitude of cracks appearing on it. So, he hit it again, this time applying much more strength. And he did manage to break the glass, though, now his hand had several bleeding cuts...

Healing them with a quick _**Episkey**_ charm, Harry picked the key, before walking to the edge of the tower's roof. It was time to begin the next phase of his plan for the task: namely, summoning his trusty Nimbus 2000 form the Gryffindor dorms – while he hadn't tested his summoning charm on such distances, the young Potter was sure he'll be successful there – and fly it to the platform in the middle of the Black lake to collect the Water element key.

Indeed, while it took quite a lot of power from him, and almost a minute of waiting, Harry was able to summon his trusty broom from where he left it under the notice-me-not charm on a windowsill of an open window in his dormitory room... Mounting his Nimbus, the green-eyed wizard sped towards the Black lake.

While he was still flying above the cliff on which the castle stood, the young Potter saw a figure emerging from the lake near where the waterfront was more sloping. Looking closer, he could make out long blonde hair, meaning that this was Fleur Delacour. Apparently, the French witch had just collected her second key too. While not overly worrisome, this still meant that Harry had a very little advantage over his fellow champions at best: if he wanted to do his best – and he had to, because of the trice damn contract with the Goblet – he better hurry up.

His flight was going fine, until got within about a hundred meters from the floating platform in the middle of the lake. There, he ran into a powerful ward that stopped his broom. Unfortunately for Harry, only his broom was stopped; he himself, in accordance with the laws of physics, continued moving. Cursing out loud, the dark-haired teen began thinking of ways to survive the fall – he was about forty or so meters above the surface of the lake, after all.

"_**Aresto momentum!**_" This spell indeed slowed Harry's descent, but the young wizard was still sure that as he was right now, his fall would still result in a few broken bones. At least now he had another precious second to think. Unfortunately, the only idea to pop into his head was one of those self-enhancements he had picked from a book he had read several months ago. In particular, the one that hardened one's skin and bones. Still, while this enhancement did make one much more resistant to physical damage, one would still feel every ounce of pain from the hits.

Thankfully, a spell from Salazar Slytherin's journal could solve this problem. The so-called berserker's curse made one completely unable to feel pain for a period of time. It fell out of use around the late thirteenth century as it often did more bad than good – after all, pain was a natural signal that one's body is damaged, and ignoring such signals could lead to some results that are far from pretty...

Quickly casting this curse onto himself, Harry rolled into a sloppy cannonball. And less than a second later he hit the surface of the lake, descending at least two meters deep into the chilling to the point where they felt hot waters... Still strongly affected by the impact he had just survived, Harry floundered to the surface; cold water and his now wet and heavy clothes not making this any easier for him.

Taking a life giving breath of air as he finally surfaced, the young Potter looked around: he was maybe twenty meters away from the platform. Good. He didn't fancy spending much more time in this chilling water... Any plans to get to the platform went down the drain when Harry felt a thin bony arms wrap themselves around his feet. Grindylow! Without really looking down there – he had no desire to put his head under the water again – the green-eyed teen fired several revulsion jinxes. Apparently, at least one of them hit the creature, as it released his feet from its grip. A follow up of stunning curses hopefully ensured that it would not attack him again in the nearest future...

Still, not wanting to try his luck with the rest of the pack which ought to be lurking nearby, Harry swan towards the platform as fast as he could. And once he was safely on it, he dried his clothes and his hair with magic, before casting the most powerful heating charm he knew – even though he spent less than a minute in the water, he felt chilled to the bone.

Done with this problem, Harry canceled the self-enhancement and walked onto the elevation at the center of the platform. There stood a large bowl filled with a transparent greenish liquid. On the bottom of this bowl there was a key. Next to the said bowl there was a couple of simple iron goblets... Somehow, despite being much more cheerful, this whole setup strongly reminded the young Potter of Voldemort and the cave where he stored one of his horcruxes.

Indeed, the green-eyed teen quickly confirmed that one couldn't reach the key unless all of the liquid was gone from the bowl. The problem – if one tried to just pour it out, it would return into the bowl. And there was way too much of the liquid for it all to be fit into just two small goblets. Many more were needed... And once Harry was sure that the goblets weren't charmed against being magically tampered with, he cast _**geminio**_ charm on them, eventually turning just two of them into three whole dozens. That was enough to bale out the liquid from the bowl.

Once he picked the key, the young Potter saw that all of his copies of goblets got dispelled, while the bowl was instantly refilled will the very same green liquid. Finally, a new key appeared on the bottom of the bowl.

'_Heh._' He chuckled to himself. With three keys already in his possession, he had only the one to retrieve. The said key was somewhere in the Forbidden forest, and the green-eyed teen decided that he should use his summoned broom to the max: why walk all the way when flying was much faster? He tried summoning his Nimbus 2000 again, but it appeared that the whatever invisible barrier surrounded the platform prevented his broom from getting close.

This meant that before he could get his broomstick back, he needed to put some distance between himself and the platform he was currently on. And Harry most definitely wasn't looking forward to swimming in the freezing-cold water again.

Firing a weak _**bombarda**_ at the wooden floor of the platform, the young wizard produced several splinters large enough for his plan to work. Of course, the amount of magical power he needed to put into this was almost ridiculous, but in his mind it was still better that swimming half across the lake... Picking the largest splinter, he transfigured it into a small boat. Plunging it into the water, he got over into it and then made it move with a well-used application of a water-hose charm.

Once he was sure he was outside the platform's ward's range, the green-eyed teen once again tried summoning his broom. And once it was once again in his hands, he mounted it and not really caring about what will happen to his boat flew towards the Forbidden forest...

* * *

While the 'point me' obviously wouldn't work on the Earth element key itself, Harry easily found out that it did work when he 'asked' for the position of the trial he needed to pass in order to obtain the said key. The said trial was set up in a large clearing a hundred or so yards into the Forbidden forest. Judging by the scorch marks on the ground and on the trees, it was the very same same clearing where the beasts for the First task had been kept.

The trial itself was set up in the following way: in the center of the clearing there was a small pyramid, on the top of which there were the keys – well only one now, as three other had already been collected. The pyramid itself was surrounded by ward that looked like a large bubble. Finally, there was a dozen of clay golems, each as tall as a human, patrolling the clearing and ready to pummel anyone who dared to try to gain access to the key into the ground with their large fists.

Breaking the ward, the young Potter could see, would take time and concentration, and was something that he wouldn't be able to do if the golems kept attacking him. So, these clay constructs had to be dealt with first... Still hovering high above the clearing on his broomstick, Harry tried blasting the golems apart with powerful _**bombarda**_ curses, but it quickly became apparent that the magical constructs were much sturdier than they looked. Cutting and piercing curses, as well as a variety of fire and water conjuration spells also had little to no effect.

Seeing as no magic he was supposed to know as a fourth year would work on the golems, Harry decided that he should change his tactics a bit: he could always trap them even if he couldn't destroy them. So, he magically excavated a large and deep hole in the ground, before luring the golems towards it. They proved to be not very intelligent ones, as one by one they all fell into this trap.

Done with this thread, the green-eyed wizard headed to pyramid. Dismounting from his broom, he studied the ward that kept him away from the key. While it did look impressive, he knew that it shouldn't be that hard to break – it was a part of the task designed for seventeen years old school students after all... Unfortunately, the easiest way to break a ward, namely, destroying the anchoring runic array, was out of question as it was obviously located inside the ward.

It took Harry quite a few rather high-level detection spells, but in the end he found a weakness in the ward that he could exploit. It was actually a rather glaring weakness: the ward could only prevent animate objects and spells from crossing its perimeter. This meant that while summoning charm wouldn't work on the key, he could still get it with nothing more than a hook on a long shaft.

Transfiguring a branch that he found lying on the ground into the tool he needed, the young Potter managed to collect the key. But once the key was outside the ward, another dozen of golems sprang to life, advancing towards him from all sides. The green-eyed wizard didn't falter even for a moment, though, and quickly mounting his broom, he zapped high into the air, before speeding towards the stadium, intent on finishing the task as soon as possible.

Just as left the forest, Harry saw Victor Krum running towards the stadium from the castle. But as he had a speed advantage thanks to his broom, the young Potter knew he'll arrive to the 'finish' before the Durmstrang champion. And, indeed, by the time he flew into the arena, Victor had barely covered a quarter of the way from the Hogwarts' main gates to the stadium...

"**And Harry Potter is the first one to return with all four keys!**" Magically-amplified voice of Ludo Bagman announced as the green-eyed teen dismounted his broom a few steps away from the pyramid with the chest that stood in the center of the arena. "**Now, Mr. Potter, if you would be so kind to open the chest...**" Nodding, the dark-haired teen climbed up the pyramid and inserted the four keys into their respective keyholes. The keys glowed light-blue for a moment, before disappearing, while the chest's lid opened. But Harry could see only a magical shroud of darkness inside. "**And now, pick a ball from inside the chest.**" Following Mr. Bagman's instruction, the green-eyed wizard stuck his hand into the darkness, before pulling it out a moment later, holding a metal ball in his fingers. The said ball had number '2' etched on it. "**Congratulations, Mr. Potter.**" Ludo continued. "**You will be instructed about this ball after all champions finish the task.**"

Nodding, the young Potter headed to the first aid booth: madam Pomfrey wouldn't rest until she was sure that he and all other champions were well... Just as he was about to enter the corridors hidden under the spectators' tribunes, Harry heard Mr. Bagman announce the Durmstrang champion completing the task as well.

* * *

In the end, Harry had to wait for almost twenty minutes before the last of the four champions – it was Cedric, whose hands and feet looked like he stuck them into an electric fan; apparently, that pack of grindylow decided to get really serious with him – had completed the second task. And once all of the champions were patched up by madam Pomfrey enough to be able to hear their scores while standing in the center of the arena, the judges announced the said scores.

Harry got nine from madam Maxime; ten from Ludo Bagman; and eight from Percy Weasley, who was substituting for still-ill Mr. Crouch. Dumbledore and Karkarov gave him six and five respectively – apparently they both didn't like the fact that he used his broomstick during the task like he did... Still, in the end Harry still had scored quite well in this task: only Victor Krum got more points.

Once the scores were announced, Mr. Bagman asked the champions to go to the waiting room, where he will give them the instructions for the Third task.

* * *

"Alright, congratulations on successfully completing the second task of the Triwizard tournament." Ludo said cheerfully as he entered the room – all four champions were already there. "At the moment I will not disclose what the third task will be..." The man continued. "You will get more information about it later. But I ask you to keep the balls you have gotten from the chest safe – they will be your keys in the final task. Everything clear?" Receiving nods from all champions, Mr. Bagman continued: "Well, off you go, then!"

* * *

That's all, folks!  
Leave me a **review**.


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